ARGUMENT: DEFEATNG DRONESHow Doctrine and Delineation Can Help Defeat Drones
As Iranian-made drones continue to spread destruction across Ukraine, observers have been reminded once again of the dangers unmanned aerial systems pose. Nicholas Paul Pacheco writes that the United States, to its credit, has made significant progress in bolstering its capabilities to combat this threat, particularly through the investment of the Pentagon and the defense industrial base in counter-drone research and development. But “there remain two areas that have not been properly tackled: base defense and warfighter-policymaker synergy,” he writes.
As Iranian-made drones continue to spread destruction across Ukraine, observers have been reminded once again of the dangers unmanned aerial systems pose. The United States, to its credit, has made significant progress in bolstering its capabilities to combat this threat, particularly through the investment of the Pentagon and the defense industrial base in counter-drone research and development. Washington has also established a senior-level Joint-Force office dedicated to addressing drone attacks within the Department of Defense.
Nicholas Paul Pacheco writes in War on the Rocks that there remain two areas that have not been properly tackled: base defense and warfighter-policymaker synergy. First, bases have become particularly vulnerable to small drones, in part because there is no clear delineation of roles and responsibilities in defending against them. Second, the fast-paced evolution of drone warfare has made it difficult for policymakers to effectively ensure every echelon down to the operators of counter-drone systems is on the same page when it comes to strategic vision, operational mission, and tactical employment.
He writes:
To address these gaps, the Department of Defense should begin incorporating its counter-drone research and strategy into new doctrine and professional military education. To facilitate this, the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office should include representatives from Army Training and Doctrine Command and the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School on its team. At the same time, the Department of Defense should authorize a new joint command center integrating the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps that would fall under J3 Operations to directly oversee base defense. This interagency effort would be tasked with bringing together all relevant stakeholders, alongside the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, to test and deploy new counter unmanned aerial systems technology.
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Global procurement of military unmanned aerial systems is up 57 percent from 2021. In the Middle East, Houthi attacks on the Gulf States have shown how legacy air defense systems like the American MIM-104 Patriot have proven ineffective in combating the threat. Even the U.S. military’s most effective legacy system against drones, the Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar Intercept, is at risk against a large enough drone swarm with decentralized flight patterns.
