ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With the threat of small unmanned aircraft systems growing, nearly 50 federal agencies convened for a summit recently to help keep the skies over America safe from dangerous drones.
Representatives from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Transportation Department, Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies — about 50 total — met for the first time at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Va., as part of the introductory summit for Joint Interagency Task Force 401 partners.
“This was an opportunity to bring together all of the services, all of our interagency partners that have shared interests and equities with countering small UAS threats, because no one agency can solve this on their own,” said Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, task force commander. “What we’re really trying to do is expand the community of interest into a community of action and make sure we’re taking tangible steps to defeat the UAS threat we face on a daily basis.”
Micheal Torphy, unit chief of the FBI’s UAS and counter-UAS programs within their Critical Incident Response Group, attended the summit. He said the task force’s interagency focus will empower the FBI.
“We’re exceptionally excited about this initiative, and we do believe it will enhance our ability to work with our partners to disrupt threats,” he said.
One of the things the FBI is bringing to the table is the National Counter-UAS Training Center, which recently opened on Redstone Arsenal.
“Its purpose is to train state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement officers on counter-UAS, getting them ready for the World Cup (in June), America 250 and ultimately the Olympics and other events,” he said.
Torphy also said he thinks the interoperability inside the task force is going to make it easier for the FBI to work hand in hand with other partners to contribute to the mission of keeping the skies over America safe.
“The way this has been rolled out has been extraordinary,” he said. “Gen. Ross and his team have been fantastic in getting us involved very, very early. We’re really excited about the future.”
The threat from small UAS is growing, Ross told task force members.
“Unmanned systems are a defining threat for our time, and I say that because they’re prolific, they’re evolving quickly, and they’re no longer confined to combat,” he said. “The of drones is putting exquisite surveillance and precision strike capability into the hands of individuals and small groups that used to be reserved for our state adversaries.”
Ross emphasized the task force’s three lines of effort to defeat the counter-small UAS threats: defending the homeland, supporting warfighter lethality and joint force training.
In the short term, according to Ross, homeland defense will focus on the area around Washington; the southern border; and supporting the FIFA World Cup event in June 2026, which is a national special security event.
U.S. Northern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Border personnel have reported some 3,000 drone incursions over the border in the past year and have seen over 60,000 drones just south of the border looking into the U.S., according to Ross.
Ross affirmed his belief that addressing threats from drones at the border isn’t about a hardware solution; it involves communications and data sharing.
“We need a common air picture that includes drones,” he said. “In some cases, we need cross-domain solutions that will allow us to see data that’s picked up on a secret radar and an unclassed sensor. We need to proliferate active and passive sensors that provide air situational awareness along the southern border.”
Keeping the drone threat at bay and protecting the U.S. homeland — including people and infrastructure — will take a whole-of-government approach, Ross said.
“It’s important that this is a joint and interagency effort because nobody can solve this problem alone,” he said. ” is a whole-of-government effort to be able to protect our critical infrastructure against the threat of unmanned systems. We’ve got to partner closely with our local law enforcement and other federal, state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement to be able to counter this threat, see it before it starts to manifest and then to defeat it before an attack is successful.”
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