The Department of Homeland Security issued warnings to state and local law enforcement agencies this summer regarding the “growing illicit use” of commercial drones, internal documents show. Among the recommended steps was to conduct “exercises to test and prepare response capabilities.”
A DHS memo from August, which has not been previously reported, paints US cities as woefully underprepared for the “rising” threat of weaponized drones.
The capabilities of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are “progressing faster” than available countermeasures offered under “federal prevention frameworks,” the memo says, adding that it’s common for state and local authorities to observe “nefarious” and “noncompliant” flights but still lack the authority to intervene.
The memo states that violent extremists in the US are increasingly searching for ways to modify “off-the-shelf” drones to ferry dangerous payloads, including “explosives, conductive materials, and chemicals,” with major advancements in the area being propelled largely by rampant experimentation on foreign battlefields, including those in Ukraine.
The document indicates that DHS has been urging local agencies for months to scout for possible launch sites near and around critical assets, while offering a slew of recommendations designed to mitigate a threat that the agency insists is growing by the day.
Local officials have been advised to reposition CCTV cameras to aid in capturing evidence of airborne threats, and to start training local police on how to handle downed drones believed to carry hazardous and explosive materials.
Additionally, the agency has urged local agencies to generously deploy, where legal, sensors capable of detecting and identifying commercial drones.
The memo, first obtained by Property of the People, a nonprofit focused on transparency and national security, was circulated roughly three months before the recent flurry of alleged drone sightings along the East Coast—growing national interest in which has been driven in part by the government’s own nebulous response.
New Jersey residents have been steadily reporting bright lights and flying objects in the sky over the past few weeks. At the same time, federal authorities have worked to downplay the significance of the reports.
While Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas conceded in an interview on Sunday that “people are seeing drones,” DHS had issued a statement days earlier declaring that “numerous detection methods” had failed to corroborate “any of the reported visual sightings.”
