The Defense Department has formally given guidance to all U.S. military installations on how best to address drones they deem a threat — including shooting them down.
“Protecting our force remains a top priority,” DoD spokesman
Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis said in a statement Monday. “That is why the Department of Defense issued very specific, but classified, policies that detail how DoD personnel may counter the unmanned aircraft threat to personnel, vital facilities, and critical assets.”
Davis said the policy itself is not new, as it is based off language enacted in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
“The NDAA is the basis for most of this,” he told Military.com. “The newness of it is that we’re providing guidance to the local installation commander[s] to craft their public affairs guidance.”
Language in Section 1697 of the NDAA, “Protection of Certain Facilities and Assets from Unmanned Aircraft,” amended Chapter 3 of U.S. Code Title 10, according to budget documents.
Through Section 130i, it gave the department the authority “to take certain actions with respect to unmanned aircraft systems, including using reasonable force to disable, damage, or destroy them,” a defense official told Military.com on Monday.
“We won’t go into the specific rules for the use of force; however, we retain the right and obligation to act in self-defense,” the defense official said, reiterating the DoD’s latest stance.
The Military and Veterans' Room
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Peter1469
