Several agencies issued a joint warning to drone operators on Friday, emphasizing that failure to abide by relevant laws could incur significant penalties, including jail time.
Drone incursions over stateside military bases and critical infrastructure have become more common in recent years as drones have become more widely available on the commercial market, leaving federal authorities in need of updating their laws and defenses to ensure they’re prepared for any possibility.
The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and War, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued the warning.
“As drone use continues to grow, we are stepping up enforcement, and drone pilots are expected to follow FAA regulations just like any other pilot,” FAA chief counsel Liam McKenna said. “Those who choose to ignore the rules will face serious consequences, including substantial fines, revocation of their airman certificate, and even criminal penalties.”
Possible penalties for flying a drone through restricted airspace include fines exceeding $100,000, federal criminal charges that could carry jail time, and the confiscation of the drone.
U.S. officials have tracked multiple drone incursions over Fort Lesley J. McNair Army base within the last 10 days, which is where War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their families live, but have not figured out where they came from, according to the Washington Post.
Gen. Gregory Guillot, the head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, revealed this week that in the early hours of the U.S. war in Iran, U.S. troops identified and defeated a drone that had been tracked over “a strategic U.S. installation.”
He detailed the incident in his written statement submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of a hearing that occurred earlier this week, though he did not specify where it occurred or the number of drones discovered.
“If you fly an illegal drone, you will be caught,” Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross said. “We have highly trained personnel and sophisticated tools to safely and effectively mitigate any drone threat. This is a true whole-of-government effort, and our No. 1 priority is the safety of the American public.”
Ross is the leader of the Pentagon’s Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which was stood up last year to plan and strategize America’s counter-drone defenses, particularly domestically.
“The biggest dilemma is just how broad the [drone] threat exists,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told the Washington Examiner in an interview last month. “And then how do you layer in solutions that can take into account how much just territory is required to be defended. What keeps me up at night is just the sheer magnitude of the problem that is required.”
US HAS ‘HIGH CONFIDENCE’ IN LOCATION OF IRAN’S ENRICHED URANIUM: GABBARD
The U.S. has been on heightened alert for an attack on the homeland in response to the war in Iran.
An individual identified as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali rammed his car into a Detroit-area synagogue earlier this month. He had “familial ties to a Hezbollah leader,” whom Israel killed, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told lawmakers earlier this week.
