“C-UAS detection, mitigation will need to be managed at community level” – DHS

There is a need for urgent action to enable every community to detect and mitigate drone activity to the same degree (or better) than is currently possible at the federal level, according to  Samantha Vinograd, Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a recent broadcast interview.

During the interview she highlighted the department’s increasing concern over the rapid increase in the use of drones for malicious purposes. Ranging from the equivalent of ‘joyriding’ escapades by irresponsible individuals through narcotics trafficking (especially into prisons) all the way through to terrorist intent, the scale and increasing intensity of incursions is causing significant concern in government circles.

The low entry threshold from a cost perspective, the increasing technological sophistication of drones and the ease with which they can be procured and used combine to accentuate the threat potential. The escalation in the scale of unauthorised drone use in national airspace is in itself a worrying fact. The scale is leading to a recognition that DHS “cannot be everywhere,” and that there is a need for urgent action to enable every community to detect and mitigate drone activity to the same degree (or better) than is currently possible at the federal level.

While large-scale public events are currently catered for, the potential for drone intervention in routine VIP travel at state and local level, sporting and entertainment events at which spectators can number in the tend of thousands and the potential for attacks on critical infrastructure all pose concerns for planners and operators. The added worry is that DHS’ authorisation for the current level of countermeasures expires in February and with Congress now mired in internal squabbling, there is no guarantee it will be smoothly renewed, let alone expanded to take account of emerging circumstances.

In the first half of 2023 alone, 302 drone incidents took place near an airport, of which 146 were close to the country’s largest 30 airports. Six aircraft had to divert to avoid colliding with a drone.