The new Pentagon task force established to counter threats posed by small drones on Friday announced the creation of a hub for agencies to purchase counter-drone equipment and ways to improve how these systems work together. The effort comes as the U.S. faces an increasing number of incursions over these facilities, and about a year after a spate of them began popping up across the continent. “We’re going to use all the tools at our disposal to be able to acquire new technology as quickly as possible to get it into the hands of the warfighter,” Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the newly created Joint Interagency Task Force-401 (JIATF-401). Ross spoke on Friday to a small group of reporters, including from The War Zone. The Army-led task force is creating what Ross calls a “UAS and counter-UAS marketplace” that will allow the installation commanders and interagency partners like the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement to shop for equipment and components.

I love buying up dozens of completely different systems Logistics officers love me!

A task force spokesman described the effort as “an Amazon-like marketplace for the procurement of counter-drone technology and equipment where people can go online, look for capabilities and user feedback.” It will be similar to one being launched by the Army for the procurement of drones. The marketplace “will provide authoritative data on how each of these systems performs under varying conditions and allow users or customers to select the tool that’s right for them,” Ross explained.

online marketplaces, famed for their accurate consumer reviews

“We’ve got a wide variety of counter-UAS tools, and I actually think that we need all of them, because depending on where you are or what threat you’re focused on, your requirements will be slightly different. So we want to ensure that we provide a range of options both to the Department of War and to our interagency partners.” The task force is looking at systems and components already on the market as well as working with industry partners to develop new ones. There are “hundreds of components of counter-UAS systems that could go on to the marketplace today, and we need to start thinking about these counter-UAS systems as components that are interchangeable.” He did not offer specific examples but said it includes a wide range of sensors to detect drones and low-collateral and non-kinetic effectors to defeat them. The task force is not looking at explosive interceptors because, as we pointed out in the past, there are concerns about collateral damage and what works in a combat zone is not applicable in the homeland. We have profiled a number of these systems in previous articles.

Providing individual components in addition to complete systems allows individual purchasers to better obtain what they need, Ross noted. “When you look at a full-stack system, you may settle for a less-than-optimal configuration of your radar, your EO/IR camera, and your layered effectors,” Ross explained. “If I only need to sense 20 kilometers and not 40 kilometers and I could change out that radar, put a lower-cost radar on there, then I could put more systems out into the field. As we look at that marketplace, I really want it to be components, similar to what you would see on any other online marketplace, that are plug-and-play as part of a counter-UAS system.”

this mfer thinks we have video-game crafting systems, "yeah lemme just go in the menu and put in the +10 detection radius radar"

Beyond offering equipment, the task force is streamlining the command and control of the wide array of systems being used by the military and its agency partners. “What’s critical in any counter-UAS system is the mission command that allows you to tie together disparate sensors and effectors,” he posited. “And so what we are going to do inside of JIATF-401 is ensure that we standardize the communications protocols on how we send and receive information so that every component of a counter-UAS system is plug and play.” “For too long, we’ve struggled with integration,” Ross suggested. “And as people use different mission command systems, they had to specifically integrate a new component. And just like when you buy something to put on your Wi-Fi network at home, you know it’s going to work because the communication protocols are already established. We want to do the exact same thing for counter-UAS systems, both internal to the Department of War and for our interagency partners.”

weaponry, famously the exact same as consumer electronics

The task force has yet to settle on a specific system. “We evaluated every service’s mission command system last month in Operation Clear Horizon,” the task force director explained. “We did that specifically to assess their quantitative performance and then qualitatively how the workflows affected the outcome of those mission command systems. And we’re evaluating that now.” While the task force is creating a more unified mission command system, Ross said it is important for individual installations to be able to act quickly on their own. “It’s important that we remain decentralized,” he said. “If you look at the speed at which these systems can present a threat, you have to have operators that are empowered, trained, and they understand their authorities to be able to counter those threats, because they just don’t have time to go up to a higher level for approval.”

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Still, Ross insisted that military installations “are equipped to handle UAS incursions.” “The specific equipment varies by location,” Ross proffered, “but what we’re trying to build at each location where we have critical infrastructure that needs to be protected is a layered defense that includes distributed sensing and layered effectors so that we have the ability to counter any and all threats.” Another huge area of concern for the military are attacks like Ukraine’s Spider Web strike on Russian aviation and Israel’s Operation Rising Lion attack on air defense systems and other military targets and personnel. The incidents have highlighted the danger presented by near-field drone attacks launched deep within enemy territory, in close proximity to their targets. As we have pointed out for many years, military assets and other high-value targets are extremely vulnerable to these types of operations within the homeland. One of the most visible counter-drone efforts is taking place on the southern border, where President Donald Trump has ordered thousands of troops and equipment to prevent the flow of undocumented aliens and drugs into the country. “I was actually at the southern border last week, spending time both with the NORTHCOM team and with the Joint Task Force Southern Border to understand the challenges that they’re facing,” he said. “I do that because understanding their challenges very specifically will allow us to focus our effort on closing that next gap. If you look across the 1,954-mile border, I think that we do face a challenge of unmanned systems, and NORTHCOM is focused on addressing those challenges now, in conjunction with other lead federal agencies.” The task force is working toward “an integrated, distributed sensing network that includes both passive and active sensors, and then layering in effectors, or counter UAS effectors that will allow us to defeat a threat as it crosses the border,” Ross explained. “We’re working closely with DHS, Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Interior and other agencies that are working along the southern border.”

ah, testing out (counter-)drone technology against migrants on the border, sounds great

surely the techniques developed there would never be turned inward onto the "native" population!

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Drones have already been taken down coming over the border, Ross stated, but he did not specifically say how. We reached out to NORTHCOM and the task force for further details. It is one thing to have the equipment and personnel, but the task force is also pushing for increased authorities to act. That includes making sure all bases fall under the provisions of “130(i),” federal law covering current authorities for the “protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft.” Under 130i, the U.S. military has the authority to take “action” to defend against drones including with measures to “disrupt control of the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft, without prior consent, including by disabling the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft by intercepting, interfering, or causing interference with wire, oral, electronic, or radio communications used to control the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft” and “use reasonable force to disable, damage, or destroy the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft.”**

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