美国陆军最高文职官员告诉立法者，该部门正依靠其新的反无人机市场平台，加强对即将举行的高调活动的局部安保。专家和官员警告称，这些活动面临无人机系统的威胁风险。
今年早些时候，五角大楼首次推出了“反无人机市场”，官员们将其描述为一个类似于“亚马逊”的平台，拥有可供政府人员购买的反无人机部件和系统目录。五角大楼的反无人机实体——联合跨部门特遣部队401（JIATF-401）本周表示，自推出以来，已从该网站购买了价值1300万美元的技术，如低附带损伤系统、传感器、雷达和电子战平台。
在周四的众议院国防拨款小组委员会听证会上，陆军部长丹·德里斯科尔表示，非联邦机构也可以从该市场购买物品。当被问及陆军在分享美国活动安保的反无人机能力方面的作用时，德里斯科尔说：“全国各地的州、地方和联邦执法人员都可以从该网站购买。我们已经收到了订单。”
德里斯科尔关于该市场及其在应对重大活动“高度安全关切”方面作用的评论，凸显了长期以来对美国本土无人机防御的担忧。专家告诉媒体，鉴于无人机成本低、易于获取且难以探测，它们对国内基础设施和平民构成的威胁无处不在。今年夏天的国际足联世界杯赛事、美国250周年庆典以及2028年加州夏季奥运会都将面临更高的无人机安全挑战。
The Army’s top civilian leader told lawmakers the service is leaning on its new counter-drone marketplace to bolster local security at upcoming high-profile events, ones that experts and officials have warned are at risk of unmanned aerial system threats.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon debuted an initial launch of its “Counter-UAS Marketplace,” which officials have touted as an “Amazon-like” platform with a catalogue of anti-drone parts and systems for government personnel to buy.
The Pentagon’s counter-drone entity, Joint Interagency Task Force 401, said this week that $13 million-worth of tech — such as low-collateral systems, sensors, radars and electronic warfare platforms — has been purchased from the site since its launch.
During a House Defense Appropriations subcommittee hearing Thursday, the Army’s top official said non-federal agencies can also buy items from the marketplace.
“State and local and federal law enforcement officers across the country can purchase from this site. We’ve already had purchases,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said when asked about the service’s role in sharing counter-drone capabilities for security at events in the United States.
He said Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall has hosted 350 state and local police departments, though he didn’t specify when, and that the Army is “syncing them in” to JIATF-401’s counter-drone efforts.
While briefly mentioned at Thursday’s budget hearing, Driscoll’s comments about the marketplace and its role in combatting what one lawmaker described as “high security concerns” at major events, highlights long-brewing alarm over stateside drone defense.
Experts have told DefenseScoop that the threats drones present to domestic infrastructure and civilians is ubiquitous given their low cost, easy access and hard-to-detect nature. FIFA World Cup events and America 250 celebrations this summer as well as the 2028 Summer Olympics in California will bring heightened drone security concerns.
“It used to be that we just did the Super Bowl once a year with that kind of cap,” Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a recent interview with DefenseScoop. “But we need lots of Super Bowl-style bubbles over lots of things all year round.”
“Now that does not mean a perfect astrodome over the entire United States and every blade of grass,” he added. “But what it does mean is you need a ton of sensing — ubiquitous sensing — and then a number of relatively robust … air defense capabilities that can be moved around.”
Evidence of such concerns has been playing out for years in the U.S., with hundreds of drone sightings in 2024 over military installations, at the southern border and most recently at Barksdale Air Force base last month where “several unauthorized” UAS entered airspace resulting in a brief shelter-in-place order.
JIATF-401 recently announced it committed $100 million for the FIFA World Cup security, “focusing on mobile co
