Suspicious Drone Activity in the U.S.

I'm sure all of us have plenty of things about which to worry, but I'm going to add one more thing that you might not have considered: drones. There have been a number of mysterious events in the United States involving drones in the past few weeks. The one thing that the incidents have in common is that they don't have explanations. There is no evidence that the events are connected, but of course there is no indication that they aren't either. Generally, very little is known about the occurrences. But given the emergence of drones as a key weapon in both the Ukraine and Iran wars, it is probably worth paying attention to strange drone activity in the United States.

March was a big month for unexplained and potentially dangerous drone activity in the United States. March was also the first full month of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. Given the scant information available, there is no way to know whether the war and the drones are connected. On March 9, a wave of unidentified drones flew over Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The drone flights apparently continued for several days. ABC News was able to review a confidential briefing document dated March 15. In response to questions about the document from ABC News, an Air Force spokesperson said that "Barksdale Air Force Base detected multiple unauthorized drones operating in our airspace during the week of March 9th".

Barksdale is one of two U.S. bases that house B-52 bombing wings. B-52s have been used in the Iran war, though it is not clear if any from Barksdale have been involved. According to the ABC News report, the base was "under a shelter-in-place order March 9 after ‘a report of an unmanned aerial system operating over the installation.’" While the shelter-in-place order was lifted later that day, the drone flights continued for nearly a week. The report also reported that:

According to the confidential briefing document dated March 15, the drones came in waves and entered and exited the base in a way that may suggest attempts to “avoid the operator(s) being located.” Lights on the drones suggested the operators “may be testing security responses” at the base.

“Between March 9-15, 2026, BAFB Security Forces observed multiple waves of 12-15 drones operating over sensitive areas of the installation, including the flight line, with aircraft displaying non-commercial signal characteristics, long-range control links and resistance to jamming,” the document said. “After reaching multiple points across the installation, the drones dispersed across sensitive locations on the base.”

According to ABC News, "The flights lasted around four hours each day and the drones used varied routes of ingress and deliberate maneuvering within restricted airspace."

The briefing document says that the drones were not consumer-grade devices but rather "appeared to be custom built and required ‘advanced knowledge’ of signal operations." The report also stated that:

The drone incursions at BAFB pose a significant threat to public safety and national security since they require the flight line to be shut down while also putting manned aircrafts already inflight in the area at risk.

The upshot of this is that an unknown entity spent a week flying more than a dozen extremely sophisticated drones over one of the U.S.'s most important air bases, and there was nothing the military could do about it.

On March 18, The Washington Post reported that unidentified drones had been detected above Washington, D.C.'s Fort Lesley J. McNair. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both currently live on base at McNair. According to the Post report, multiple drones had been spotted on a single night. The base also is home to the National Defense University and several top military officials. As in the case of the Barksdale intrusions, it is concerning that drones were able to fly over a sensitive military installation and depart without apparent identification of where they came from, where they went, or who was responsible for them.

The Washington Post article also mentioned that:

During the 2024 presidential campaign, the Secret Service detail protecting Trump’s team repeatedly encountered unidentified drones, including during a news conference in Los Angeles and a motorcade ride through rural western Pennsylvania.

Another concerning incident involving drones was reported yesterday by national security journalists Sean D. Naylor and Jack Murphy on their "The High Side" substack. Naylor and Murphy wrote that:

The sophisticated theft of 15 crop-spraying drones last month in New Jersey has the FBI worried as experts warn of “ridiculously bad” consequences and “a potential nightmare scenario” if terrorists get their hands on the machines.

They went on to write:

“The bureau is freaked out for a good reason,” Steve Lazarus, a retired FBI agent, told The High Side in an email. “These aren’t hobby drones with cameras. They’re industrial sprayers designed to carry and disperse significant amounts of liquid quickly and with precision. A typical agricultural drone can cover a large area in minutes, following GPS-guided paths — that’s exactly what they’re built for in farming, but it also means that, in the wrong hands, they’re a ready-made delivery system.”

The drones, which were built by Ceres Air, were apparently being stored at a shipping and logistics company named CAC International. A truck arrived with what appeared to be an authentic bill of lading to pick up the drones. The drones were loaded onto the truck, and the driver took off. Only after his departure did Ceres Air and CAC International realize that the drones had been picked up by an imposter.

The FBI began investigating the theft and found that the Department of Transportation numbers on the truck had been copied from another vehicle. The license plates were likely stolen. License plate readers and cameras in the area did not detect the truck, "implying that the truck was dumped somewhere nearby and the drones transferred to a different vehicle."

The High Side quotes Lazarus, as also saying:

What makes the thefts concerning isn’t just the equipment itself, it’s how easy they are to use once someone has them. Keep in mind these are deployed by farmers, not rocket scientists or even aviation professionals. They’re battery-powered, portable, and don’t require much setup—basically plug-and-play. They can be launched from just about anywhere, complete their job quickly, and be gone before anyone realizes what happened.

Like the drone overflight events, what is concerning about this theft is how little is known. The theft appears to have been reasonably sophisticated, and the thieves got away cleanly. Now, nobody knows where these potentially dangerous drones are or what the thieves plan to do with them.

The Iran war revealed that the U.S. and its allies have inadequate defenses against drones. Yesterday, U.S. News & World Report reported that the U.S. military had deployed Ukrainian counter-drone technology at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. This was the base where several refueling aircraft were damaged by Iranian drone attacks, and an AWACS plane was completely destroyed.

The U.S.'s own drone defenses have met with what might be called mixed results. Earlier this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser that had been provided to them by the military to shoot down objects that were believed to be drones. It later turned out that the objects were party balloons. Because CBP didn't coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA responded by grounding flights in a large part of Texas.

However, no need to worry because help is on the way. In cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request is a $54.6 billion drone budget. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman says that this is a "24,000% increase over last year." She also notes that Don, Jr. and Eric Trump have recently invested in the drone business. The company, Powerus, announced "a deal last month to bring onboard Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr – positions the company to potentially benefit from a war that their father began." Representatives of the company have apparently been visiting "several Gulf countries to show how its defensive drone interceptors could help them ward off Iranian attacks." The family that brought us Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Shuttle, and a charitable foundation that stole money meant for children's cancer research, now apparently wants to provide Trump Drone Defenses. All I can say is "hide your party balloons."