“A lot of the ground units now have tactical [unmanned aerial systems, or UAS] that they might bring in,” the official said during an off-camera briefing at the Pentagon.

On the condition of anonymity, they and another top defense official took questions from the media regarding the Defense Department’s first official statement about how its components plan to rapidly respond to President Donald Trump’s executive mandates to tighten security at America’s southern border with the support of the U.S. military. 

The press briefing marked the first at the Pentagon since Trump re-entered office Monday, and it was attended by some of his administration’s first political appointees to trickle into the five-sided building. Border security was a major tenet of the president’s campaign commitments in the lead-up to this election and previously in 2016.

Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses issued a statement Wednesday revealing the department’s immediate plans for the expedited implementation of Trump’s executive orders pertaining to the border — including the employment of U.S. military forces for “directed missions.” 

U.S. Northern Command is the operational lead for this multifaceted initiative, and Transportation Command and other elements of the services have been called on to assist. Teams from the Department of Homeland Security and the National Guard Bureau are also working in partnership with DOD to execute the administration’s vision.

Salesses confirmed in the statement that he officially approved the Pentagon’s plans to augment troops at the southwest border with orders for roughly 1,500 additional ground personnel, plus helicopters with associated crews, and teams of intelligence analysts to enhance “detection and monitoring” pursuits. 

Further, he announced that DOD will supply military airlift for DHS deportation flights of more than 5,000 people who were detained by Customs and Border Protection in specific California and Texas sectors. The department will also aid in constructing temporary and permanent physical barriers to help counter illicit border crossings. 

During the press briefing, the senior defense official emphasized: “This is the initial effort that we can do right away, and then we anticipate many additional missions after this. This is just the start.” 

The additional troops will consist of 1,000 soldiers and 500 Marines who are going to join about 2,500 military personnel already deployed in border operations, the senior defense official said, adding at the time of the Wednesday afternoon briefing that the first of these EO-supporting missions was expected to begin over the following 24 to 48 hours. 

According to the senior military official, the Air Force is sending C-17s and C-130s to remove the DHS-detained deportees.

“We also anticipate that there could be some additional airborne intelligence, surveillance and support assets that would move down to the border to increase situational awareness,” they said.

In response to reporters’ questions, the officials confirmed that military leaders are considering the deployment of tactical UAS to complement troops’ efforts on the ground near Mexico.

“They can provide localized intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in their particular area. Obviously, the Army’s got MQ-1s, Air Force has MQ-9s, over various times in the past provided some level of support. And then you have manned platforms that could fly in support as well. So, that is still not fully decided yet. We’re waiting to refine what the requirement is working with NorthCom on that — but we’ll let you know as soon as we’ve dubbed it out a bit,” the military official said.

Under DOD’s current drone policy, the military can perform UAS operations domestically in support of a request from federal or state civilian authorities, but only with the defense secretary’s explicit approval. 

The guidance also states that the military can only deploy armed drones in the U.S. for training, exercise, and testing purposes.

A defense spokesperson said on Wednesday that they could not immediately answer DefenseScoop’s questions regarding any potential governmentwide or DOD policy changes associated with domestic U.S. military drone flights.

NorthCom spokespersons did not respond to requests for more information by publication on Thursday.

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“U.S. Northern Command conducted a deliberate analysis of the events, in consultation with other military organizations and interagency partners, and at this time we have not been requested to assist with these events. If these incidents require additional [Department of Defense] assistance, the Secretary of the Military Department or relevant DOD component head concerned can coordinate with [the command] for an enhanced or increased response,” a Northcom spokesperson said in an email. 

They pointed to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, from which officials revealed on Thursday that they’re supporting New Jersey law enforcement in the ongoing investigations.

To date though, the agencies “have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection,” according to a joint statement they shared with FedScoop and DefenseScoop. 

As the Pentagon implements a newly unveiled classified counter-drone plan, reports and videos have been shared widely online over the last few weeks of what appear to be drones of different shapes and sizes (and groups of such craft) above multiple locations around New Jersey — including a U.S. military munitions facility. 

“Naval Weapons Station Earle is aware of the recent reports of drone sightings across New Jersey and continues to closely coordinate with federal and state agencies to ensure the safety of our personnel and operations. While no direct threats to the installation have been identified, we can confirm at least two instances of an unidentified drone entering the airspace above Naval Weapons Station Earle,” a public affairs officer for the installation told DefenseScoop.

They said that, right now, members of the community should report any suspicious activity near the base to local law enforcement — not federal agencies.

Meanwhile, certain personnel based at the Naval weapons hub remain “prepared to respond to any potential risks, leveraging robust security measures and advanced detection capabilities,” according to the NWS Earle official.

They declined to elaborate on any features of those mechanisms the base is now implementing.

“For security reasons, we do not discuss force protection capabilities or procedures,” the official said.

Separately, the Northcom spokesperson confirmed that command officials are “aware and monitoring the reports of unauthorized drone flights in the vicinity of military installations in New Jersey to include Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle.” The two facilities are known to house advanced munitions and other crucial military assets.

Spokespersons from Picatinny Arsenal did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

In conjunction with interagency partners, Northcom is continuing to steadily assess new information as it flows in or fresh incidents are recorded. 

The command “is prepared to respond when asked or should the situation escalate to threaten any DOD installations,” the spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

At a White House briefing earlier on Thursday, U.S. National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby repeatedly emphasized that his team has “no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”

As commander-in-chief, President Joe Biden would “issue the appropriate directives to not only law enforcement — but perhaps, even the military,” if he was supplied with new information that demonstrated any associated drone activities posed a threat to national security or public safety, Kirby said. He, as well as the officials who spoke to DefenseScoop, did not directly answer questions about whether the government is aware of any sources controlling the drones, and who they are.

Kirby broadly rebuffed claims previously put forth by lawmakers that some of the aircraft were observed maneuvering over critical infrastructure and sensitive government locations.

“While there is no known malicious activity occurring, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight a gap in authorities. So, we urge Congress to pass important legislation that will extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities, so that we are better prepared to identify and mitigate any potential threats to airports or other critical infrastructure, and so that state and local authorities are provided all the tools that they need to respond to such threats,” he said.

A DOD spokesperson could not immediately respond to DefenseScoop’s request for more information regarding whether the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is participating in the interagency effort to make sense of the drones — or if any of the systems reported in the state so far are categorized as “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” also known as UAP.

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Speaking during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute on Thursday, VanHerck said that homeland defense will look “vastly different” in the future. Instead of being segmented into geographical regions, solutions need to have global reach and foster collaboration between not just the United States’ combatant commands, but also its partners and allies.

A number of emerging threats across the spectrum are challenging the United States’ homeland defense mission, from undersea vessels to hypersonic missiles. The goal now is to look at the mission in a broader context and stay “left of launch,” VanHerck said, meaning U.S. leaders need to have enough information about potential threats before they’re deployed to make well-informed decisions on how to respond.

“The future of air-and-missile defense doesn’t start here in the homeland. It doesn’t start with kinetic end-game defeat. It starts forward with domain awareness, with allies and partners, sharing of data and information with my fellow combatant commanders [and] being able to generate those effects further away from our homeland so that we’re not having to generate them here in the homeland,” VanHerck said.

In order to do that, the department must have more capabilities that enable better domain awareness and data collection — including unmanned systems, space-based sensors and long-range radars, he suggested.

Better domain awareness involves “getting away from competition with my fellow combatant commanders for fighters or AWACS or tankers, and getting unmanned autonomous platforms with domain awareness capabilities [and] with effectors that are both kinetic and non-kinetic that we can think of as airborne, but also maritime, that we can utilize in the Arctic or we could utilize off the eastern seaboard, the western seaboard, or around the globe wherever we need to be,” he said. 

Missile warning and tracking satellites under development by the Space Development Agency will also be crucial, VanHerck noted, especially as adversaries continue to develop high-speed missiles like hypersonics that are more maneuverable and harder to defend against than traditional airborne threats. The SDA spacecraft are slated to be part of a constellation of hundreds of systems in low-Earth orbit set to begin launching in 2024.

VanHerck also pointed to commercial satellite capabilities that could potentially be tapped into to boost the U.S. military’s situational awareness.

“We’re not launching those satellite capabilities, but we can have access to those and develop our own encryption and capabilities to not only communicate, but have data and information sharing,” he said. “Unmanned platforms then become more likely to be able to operate and pass data and information in that environment.”

In addition, the Air Force is funding over-the-horizon radars for NORAD and Northcom that can detect threats at a range of around 4,000 nautical miles. Scheduled to be fielded later this decade, the systems will augment current radar capabilities and give the U.S. military better eyes around the world, VanHerck said.

“That domain awareness needs to feed a globally integrated air-and-missile defense capability where you can do real-time collaboration —  think of JADC2 — and you can do that with allies and partners so they can generate effects for me,” he said.

But while domain awareness and data collection capabilities are crucial, the ability to quickly share that data with key stakeholders and analyze it is paramount, VanHerck said, noting that capabilities like artificial intelligence and machine learning can help process data.

“The bottom line is: I’m not worried about where the data and information comes from. It’s just sharing it so that we can have processing and dissemination for decisions quicker — which equals deterrence in the long run or integrated deterrence,” he said.

Ultimately, the shift in homeland defense will need to be addressed by policy and cultural changes, according to VanHerck. Data and other information is currently siloed, he noted, and convincing organizations to be comfortable with sharing it with other Defense Department components and allies and partners, will be “a bigger overall challenge.”

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Unsafe conditions at sea prevented explosive ordnance disposal teams from deploying the UUVs from a manned craft on Sunday, Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters during a briefing on Monday.

“Today they’re on scene as of 10 o’clock Eastern this morning,” he said.

“They went out in what’s called a rigid hull inflatable boat … to proceed to the area to utilize unmanned underwater vehicles, using side-scan sonar to further locate sunken debris,” he said. “And so we expect them to get on there and to do some additional categorization of potential threats such as explosives that may be [there] … hazardous materials that could be in [the balloon’s] batteries, etc. So we’re working very hard. I’d remind you this is an effort that’s in the open ocean ongoing in approximately 50 feet of water, and so we have to be very cognizant of the [sea] states, currents, etc. So we continue to move forward.”

VanHerck told DefenseScoop that he did not have enough information on hand to say what specific UUV systems are involved or how many of them will be deployed but the DOD may be able to provide that to reporters later.

“I’m not the expert … [but] I can assure you that it has photographic capabilities. It’ll have capabilities to emplace things such as inflatable devices and mapping sonar, those types of things,” he said.

Manned platforms including the USS Carter Hall and USNS Pathfinder are also involved in the search-and-recovery effort on the surface and undersea.

Using a variety of sensors such as sonar, the Navy is working to produce a detailed map of the debris field.

The U.S. government is eager to recover as many pieces of the suspected surveillance balloon as possible so they can be analyzed to glean intelligence about the system and its payload.

The debris field is expected to be approximately 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters — or about 15 football fields squared, according to VanHerck. U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have cordoned off the area from civilian maritime traffic.

The giant balloon that was shot down was up to 200 feet tall. The payload that it carried was “a jet airliner type of size” and probably weighed “in excess of a couple thousand pounds,” he said.

Defense officials have said the decision was made not to shoot down the air vehicle over land as it was traversing the continental United States because of the risk of harm to people and infrastructure on the ground.

“From a safety standpoint, picture yourself with large debris weighing hundreds if not thousands of pounds falling out of the sky. That’s really what we’re kind of talking about. So glass off of solar panels, potentially hazardous material such as material that is required for batteries to operate in such an environment as this, and even the potential for explosives to detonate and destroy the balloon. That could have been present. So I think that would give you an idea of the perspective of the balloon and the decision-making process along the way,” VanHerck told reporters.

He said he couldn’t confirm whether the platform was carrying any explosives. However, “anytime you down something like this, we make an assumption that that potential exists. We did not associate the potential of having explosives with a threat to dropping weapons, those kinds of things. But out of a precaution, abundance of safety for not only our military people and the public, we have to make assumptions such as that,” VanHerck said.

Due to ocean currents, it’s possible that some debris may wash up on shore. The public should avoid contact with any of that material and immediately contact local law enforcement to take care of it, VanHerck cautioned.

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