ISSUE BRIEF
No. 5382 | JUNE 4, 2025
DOUGLAS AND SARAH ALLISON CENTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
This paper, in its entirety, can be found at https://report.heritage.org/ib5382
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Countering the Drone Threat:
Steps for the U.S. Military
Wilson Beaver and Ka’Von Johnson
Adversary development of drone technol-
ogy is currently outpacing that of the U.S.,
as well as U.S. drone countermeasures.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
America’s lack of integrated detect-and-
defeat mechanisms presents a significant
threat to personnel, weapon systems, and
critical military and civil infrastructure.
Drones are revolutionary, but they are not
so for every aspect of warfare—to protect
the U.S. and its interests, procurement of
proven combat systems must continue.
V
ice President J.D. Vance has warned that
unmanned drone systems pose a serious
challenge to national security. He emphasized
the urgent need to equip U.S. forces with the tools
and capabilities required to defend the homeland
and U.S. interests from these emerging technologies,
which have the potential to disrupt military opera-
tions and endanger the lives of American troops on
the battlefield.
1
The United States must invest in and adapt to
the rise of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) while
pursuing integration and interoperability in count-
er-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) to optimize
joint capabilities. This need is underscored by the
increasing frequency of drone incursions on U.S. mili-
tary bases, attacks against U.S. forces, lessons from the
war in Ukraine, and the expanding UAS capabilities of
