Iran's drone attacks raise concerns about U.S. readiness for next-gen threats

John Yang:

So, as we have seen, the war in Ukraine is providing a real-time testing ground for nations defending against drones? But unidentified drones are also a concern here in the United States.

Liz Landers is here with more on a recent incident at a military base in Louisiana.

Liz Landers:

John, the week of March 9, a swarm of drones repeatedly hovered around Barksdale Air Force Base in Northwest Louisiana. A spokesperson for the base tells "PBS News Hour" that it was unauthorized and criminal activity that's now being investigated by both federal and local law enforcement.

ABC News reported that the drone flights lasted four hours at a time, deliberately maneuvered within the airspace over the base, and appeared to be jam-resistant. Barksdale is a key facility for the U.S. in the ongoing fight with Iran, housing B-52 bombers and nuclear weapons storage facilities.

For more on this, return to retired Air Force Lieutenant General Dave Deptula. He is now the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

General, thank you for joining us this evening.

Lt. Gen. David Deptula (Ret.), U.S. Air Force: You bet, Liz. Good to be here.

Liz Landers:

We just saw in Simon's story how advanced Ukraine's counterdrone technology is, and yet the U.S. is having trouble stopping all these drones that Iran is launching at its neighbors. How is it that Iran is so advanced here and that the U.S. is not?

Lt. Gen. David Deptula (Ret.):

Well, what I would tell you is that, with respect to Ukraine, who are the real experts, with respect to defense, is they're much better at defending against drone attacks, because, for them, this is an existential fight.

Russia is trying to eliminate Ukraine as a sovereign country, erase its people, identity and culture. So when a nation is facing that kind of threat every day, it adapts with extraordinary speed and seriousness. And that's why I think that it behooves the United States and our military to partner with Ukraine and learn from all their experience in defending against the drone assaults from the Russians.

Now, with respect to Iran, I think we need to be careful in defending -- or defining what the issue is, because we essentially have reduced Iran's ability to employ their cruise missiles and drones very, very significantly. It doesn't mean that it's been eliminated, but that's part of the objective in launching the assaults that you have seen to date so very successfully applied against the Iranians.

Liz Landers:

When you look at that drone swarm that happened over Barksdale Air Force Base earlier this month, what stands out to you and how should the base commanders handle those kinds of situations?

Lt. Gen. David Deptula (Ret.):

Well, it's a great question.

First, I think it's important to keep this event in perspective. There was no mission impact from these incidents. Operations continued. And there's no indication the activity disrupted the base's core functions.

Now, all that said, the absence of mission impact should not be mistaken for the absence of a problem, because unauthorized drone activity around sensitive military installations is still a serious security concern, for all the reasons one might imagine.

Now, the good news is, the U.S. military does have the capacity to deal with this. We have the technology, the operational experience, and the institutional knowledge to address these threats. So, the issue is less about whether we can respond and more about whether the responsible organizations are putting in enough priority and resources against the problem.

And, in particular, a service with the primary responsibility for base defense, the United States Army, needs to increase its efforts on this topic. So it's an area that requires greater attention, greater involvement, investment, and a much greater sense of urgency than has been lent to the issue today.

Liz Landers:

Who do you think is behind this incident at Barksdale? Because we have seen that China has demonstrated very sophisticated drone use just for entertainment purposes.

For example, they had a Guinness Book of World Records event last year where there were more than 7,500 drones that lit up the night sky in this just demonstration just for entertainment there in that city.

Lt. Gen. David Deptula (Ret.):

Yes, well, that is -- and I have witnessed several of those entertainment displays, but those should not be confused with battlefield performance.

Flying thousands of unmanned aircraft in a scripted show under controlled conditions is really different from operating in combat, under jamming, interference, attrition and attack. So the military question is not whether they can do choreography. It's whether they can function in a contested environment.

Liz Landers:

Sir, what kind of information can be obtained and gleaned if you have drone swarms that are hovering over these critical military installations for up to four hours at a time?

Lt. Gen. David Deptula (Ret.):

Well, it's a -- once again, it's an indication of serious concern, because it's one thing to observe. It's another thing to turn that observation into the kind of lethal attacks that we saw Ukraine execute against the Russians in some of their highly publicized activities where they lost drones out of trucks and destroyed several Russian long-range bombers.

So that, quite frankly, is the area of concern. And that's why I say we really need to increase our attention on taking action. I would suggest that command-and-control is an extraordinarily piece or -- extraordinarily important piece of this equation, and that authority to engage drones indicating hostile intent needs to be distributed down to the lowest possible levels.

And those -- these are all issues that the military is addressing and is facing. But we do need to turn up the emphasis and investment in this area.

Liz Landers:

General Dave Deptula, thank you for joining us.

Lt. Gen. David Deptula (Ret.):

My pleasure.