The White House has stated that it is requesting further authority from Congress to identify and disable hazardous drones. This includes requesting additional authority to defend airports as well as additional authority for National Security Agency (NIA) & some other government agencies.
Congress expanded the mandate of a Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to disable or decimate dangerous drones, which are previously regarded as unmanned aircraft (UA). However, the Biden administration claims that more authority is needed as the number of active drones continues to rise.
The legislative plan, which was submitted to Congress this month, would provide agencies such as the CIA and the State Department the ability to identify and destroy drones in order to defend U.S. installations.
As the Biden administration put it, “the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) requires authority in order to respond effectively to unfriendly foreign intelligence gathering confidential material about its employees, facilities, and action in the United States.”
However, the idea would not extend jurisdiction for drone destruction to airports or other key infrastructure, such as oil refineries, as well as local and state law police – despite the fact that such institutions would have greater detection capabilities under the proposal.
After releasing its “Domestic Base Aircraft Systems National Plan Of action,” the White House said that it would establish a drone event tracking database “to get a better grasp of the overall domestic enemy.”
According to the White House, the development of drones is a concern “In addition, it has introduced new concerns to public safety, security, and homeland security, among other things. Malicious actors are increasingly employing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in the United States to commit crimes, perform illegal surveillance, and conduct industrial espionage.”
The Airport Security Authority for airport and the United States Marshals Service in prisoner transportation would both get the authority to identify and kill or disable dangerous drones under the terms of the plan. The plan would legalise drone protection at military airports and would grant NASA the authority to perform drone detection activities in order to protect critical infrastructure and installations.
According to the Biden administration, two drones were noticed by Kennedy Spaceport security agents during the takeoff of the X-37B space plane, which is part of a highly classified programme, in October of this year.
In the United States, there are approximately 800,000 drones that have been registered. The White House highlighted an FBI assessment from 2018 that drones could likely be using it “to support an attack inside the U. S. against a susceptible target, such as with a mass gathering,” according to the White House.
Several DHS departments, including U.S. Secret Service & the Federal Protective Service, has deployed detection and defend technologies “over 200 times” since 2018, according to the proposal. These missions have typically been “sensitive protective missions.”
According to the article, the Airport Authority is already receiving more than 100 reports of drone sightings per month.