Earlier this month, multiple drones impeded Barksdale Air Force Base’s airspace, endangering airborne planes and grounding the base’s aircraft until the drones were gone. While this sort of incursion is not uncommon and usually is a result of unaware enthusiasts, the Department of Defense believes this was a more sophisticated and targeted act against Barksdale.
ABC reported that an internal briefing by the Air Force shares that waves of up to 15 drones flew through Barksdale Air Force Base airspace between March 9 and 15. The Air Force states that they believe the drones are not commercially purchased, but homemade UAVs that would require the perpetrators to have extensive knowledge of drone operations and counter-drone systems.
The drones would fly and observe sensitive locations across Barksdale, including its flight line. The drones were resistant to drone jamming and used tactics to both hide the drone operator’s location and use lights to “test security response.”
Barksdale Air Force Base, located in Bossier City, Louisiana, is an extremely important base for Air Force Global Strike Command. The primary unit stationed there is the 2nd Bomb Group, equipped with B-52 Stratofortresses, America’s oldest bomber. It can be equipped with both conventional and nuclear bombs. The 2nd Bomb Group is tasked with being one part of the U.S. nuclear response, being able to strike anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice.
And for a week, drones were flying overhead and surveilling potential nuclear weapons, forcing the base to be shut down for some time.
The briefing ABC saw was dated March 15 and detailed only the events of that week. The Air Force did not share with ABC whether any additional drone flights had taken place since then.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments