Aircraft parked on the open ramp are among the most valuable assets on any airfield, and among the most exposed to damage from cheap, small drones. The Department of War and the Air Force are building a layered solution of new guidance, new units, new equipment, and a stream of tests on the flightline to protect those assets.
Armed Forces Press first wrote about the threat of armed drones to parked aircraft in an opinion piece published in January, "All The Pretty Airplanes Lined Up In A Row." L. Todd Wood, a member of the Pentagon Press Corps, wrote of a simple scenario: a truck parks near an air base and opens the roof to release scores of armed drones to attack the aircraft parked on the ramp. Ukraine's Operation Spider Web against Russian bombers last year showed how real that scenario can be. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey has warned that $50 million bombers can be threatened by $500 drones. Wood called for netting as a first step to protect aircraft on the ramp while harder solutions are developed.
The recent record shows how high the stakes are for air bases. A Congressional Research Service update dated October 5 lists 81 U.S. aircraft lost or damaged since operations against Iran began on February 28, including some that were damaged but may have returned to service. Several were damaged while parked at regional bases, among them five KC-135 tankers reportedly hit at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and an E-3 Sentry struck there in late March. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in September that replacing lost equipment would cost between $1.9 billion and $3.3 billion.
The Pentagon is organizing itself to counter these threats, however. In August of 2025, the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 was established to coordinate the counter-drone efforts of the various components of the Department of War and to accelerate their fielding. To that end, in January of this year JIATF-401 released a physical protection guide written around the framework of HOP: Harden, Obscure, and Perimeter. The guide recommends nets and tensioned cables to disrupt low-cost drones, camouflage and decoys to hide airfield assets, and a broader security perimeter that strains the limited range and battery life of a drone's control links. Base commanders have also been granted greater authority to deal with these kinds of threats to their bases.
Meanwhile, the Air Force is continuing to pursue the development of a Small Unmanned Air Defense System (SUADS), a program of record that combines sensors, electronic defeat and command and control to counter small unmanned aerial systems. The service is funding the system with $51.8 million in fiscal 2026 procurement funds for both the fixed-base version and the variant that can be deployed from a cargo pallet. The Air Force has also stood up its first point defense flights, approximately 20 Airmen each, trained at the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems University at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told Congress in May that Airmen have a responsibility to defend their air bases and forces, wherever they are. A dedicated base defense career field is now in development.
The Point Defense Battle Lab at Air Combat Command, stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, continues to hold counter-drone exercises with industry throughout 2026. The battle lab plans to produce a standard operating procedure for point defense that can go to Air Force installations across the United States. JIATF-401 has chosen three lasers and one high-powered microwave (HPM) system for a directed energy shoot-off in December at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, with Grand Forks and Whiteman Air Force Bases among the pilot sites. In the meantime, U.S. Northern Command has been testing a variety of counter-drone systems, including drone-on-drone interceptors, shotgun-based systems, and sensors, as part of exercise Falcon Peak 26.2 at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. Anduril's Lattice software is serving as the common command and control system for the test.
Work to safeguard aircraft on the ground is also underway. Contracting officials at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia are soliciting information from industry on retractable anti-drone netting for up to 42 sunshade shelters currently covering F-22 Raptors at the base, starting with a proof of concept. The netting would be made of commercial-grade polyester or nylon with openings no greater than three inches, strong enough to disable a small drone and retractable so aircraft can still move in and out. In the meantime, 28th Security Forces Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota is adding perimeter sensors, thermal imaging and automated intrusion detection, and training its Airmen in counter-drone procedures, ahead of the arrival of the B-21 Raider.
Several paths forward are coming to the forefront for protecting aircraft on the ground. Netting and other covers at flightlines can use commercial-off-the-shelf products. Developing a standard operating procedure at the Point Defense Battle Lab and pairing it with SUADS kits could give every installation both a plan and the equipment to carry it out. Dispersing aircraft on the ramp, varying the time that aircraft are moved around on the ground, and using decoys to make targets harder to hit could all be elements of a layer of protection recommended by the HOP framework. Directed energy offers a low cost per shot, and this winter's results could add another answer to drone swarms.
As bombers that deployed to forward bases such as RAF Fairford in England return to their home stations, the work of the Department of War and the Air Force to defend the flightline against low-cost, small unmanned systems takes on even greater weight. The Pentagon says the bomber force can deliver global strike from within the continental United States, which puts a premium on protecting flightlines at home. Armed Forces Press will continue to monitor these developments as they relate to the Air Force.
