The head of US Strategic Command this month released guidance to security forces and the country’s nuclear bases on how to respond to threats from small drones, following the trend of adversaries using the off-the-shelf devices in battle in the Middle East. STRATCOM chief Gen. John Hyten, testifying Tuesday at the Senate Armed Services Committee, said his specific, classified guidance will give defenders steps to take if they see a small device, such as a quadcopter, either directly threatening or surveilling a nuclear facility. So a “young marine at King’s Bay or an airman at F.E. Warren doesn’t have to worry about ‘What should I be doing?’” Hyten said. He said there have been recent incidents with the small devices flying near nuclear facilities, but so far they have been incidental. However, he is concerned after seeing ISIS using weaponized devices to target Iraqi forces in Mosul, and that those “same kind of UAVs could be employed against our weapons storage facilities.”
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.