Drone Swarm in Virginia shows concerning gaps and seams in Homeland Security

In December 2023, for 17 continuous days, a fleet of drones appeared at night over Langley Air Force Base (AFB), Virginia and other facilities in the greater Virginia Beach area. This was reported at the time, but the story was fleeting. Two other events occurred in the area that are relevant to the story. In February 2023, a pair of F-22s from Langley shot down the Chinese spy balloon as it exited the United States over South Carolina into the Atlantic Ocean. In January 2024, a Chinese graduate student at the University of Minnesota, was arrested for flying a drone over close by Newport News Shipbuilding – the only builder of U.S. aircraft carriers and one of two submarine production yards.

The December 2023 drone mystery re-surfaced in the last few days in a detailed Wall Street Journal Article. When a national security story re-appears it likely means that the Inter-Agency team assembled to study the situation has begun to release findings and done select press briefings. An example of this was in May 2023 when the Chinese cyber assault on critical infrastructure in Guam was first announced by Microsoft. The story went away but later, in January 2024, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Wray, Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (DHS-CISA) Director Easterly, and National Security Agency (NSA)/Cyber Command Director General warned, “Chinese hackers are aiming to ‘wreak havoc’ on U.S. critical infrastructure” with Volt Typhoon.

Largest Department of Defense cluster of bases in the world is apparently undefended

Langley AFB is just one of many facilities in the greater Newport News/Virginia Beach area. Langley, one of the few locations for the F-22 Stealth Fighter, has been combined with close by Ft. Eustis, the Army Transportation School and where the Army Watercraft came from to attempt to create the ill-fated Gaza Pier. Yorktown Weapons Station is a short distance away and stores much of the ammunition for the East Coast U.S. Navy assets and is adjacent to a sensitive training center for the Intelligence Community. Newport News Shipbuilding is on the way to Norfolk Naval Station, the largest naval base in the world, Norfolk Naval Air Station, and Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Joint Base Little Creek-Ft. Story hosts SEAL Teams, Amphibious Warfare ships, and training ranges. Oceana Naval Air Station is where all the Navy East Coast Fighter-Strike Squadrons are located and close by is Dam Neck, home of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group. There are numerous other satellite and subordinate compounds and offices for the Department of Defense in the area – the largest base cluster in DOD and likely the world.

The group of drones – described as: “one or two fixed-wing drones positioned more than 100 feet in the air and smaller quadcopters, the size of 20-pound commercial drones, often below and flying slower.” This drone formation implies several characteristics: precise navigation in close coordination with each other; direct data link between the drones to share information; sense and avoid capabilities to provide further fidelity and accuracy; artificial intelligence enabled navigation and learning independent of terrestrial cell phone towers, and perhaps leveraging of Low Earth Orbit Satellites for command and control and direct relay of data collected during the flights. Significant Inter-Agency U.S. Government capabilities were mobilized to monitor, assess, and possibly interdict the flights, but to no avail that has been publicly revealed. The description of the drones gives them ample intelligence collection or ordnance dropping capability on the myriad of DOD bases close by.

Four Departments have parts of the domestic counter-drone mission

One challenge of the existing roles and missions in the domestic counter-drone mission is that no one department or agency is “the lead” department and agency. Four different agencies have partial roles. DOD has some “pilot” capabilities, but legal authorities and capabilities across all DOD base environs are still developing. The most mature are Naval Base Kitsap, WA and King’s Bay, GA, both home to the Navy’s Ballistic Missile Submarines. DHS and DOJ have a shared responsibility to conduct drone detection and counter-drone operations during National Special Security Events.

The Department of Energy also has authority to conduct counter drone operations at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) where underground nuclear tests were conducted until around 1992. There are discussions that perhaps nuclear testing will resume because of the Chinese and Russian nuclear build up. Holistically though, the domestic counter-drone mission has many gaps and seams. Even in the pilot DOD situations, the DOD cannot engage outside of the perimeter of their facilities. The Federal Aviation Administration is concerned with drones around airports and has issued Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 107 which is guidance on drone operations. The drone swarm in Virginia was not operating per FAR Part 107, but nothing could be done about it.

U.S. Government OODA Loop failing, while Chinese Spy Operations overwhelm the West

The U.S. Government Inter-Agency spin up is normally a painful process; agility and alacrity are not normally terms used to describe the process. Once focused and with the right White House Leadership, great things can be accomplished like landing on the Moon or winning the Cold War. The professional, American national security culture prizes the American ability to act faster in the Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action Loop than opponents.

Whatever was happening in the greater Virginia Beach area in December 2023 showed that an opponent was turning inside the American Inter-Agency OODA Loop. This is a very bad thing. Currently China is conducting a spying surge that is overwhelming the West and far greater than the Soviet threat during the Cold War. It is not illogical to conclude the drones may have a connection with Chinese spy efforts. The unsecure American Border Homeland and China’s malign efforts should be a far greater focus of attention in Election 2024.