Air Force creates task force to improve counter-drone tactics at bases

Air Combat Command has established a team that will help develop and validate enhanced tactics, techniques and procedures for protecting U.S. military installations from small unmanned aerial systems.

In October, the service selected the 319th Reconnaissance Wing located at Grand Forks Air Base in North Dakota to spearhead the new Point Defense Battle Lab — a collaboration hub that will contribute to the Air Force’s ongoing counter-sUAS efforts. With support from the Kansas Air National Guard’s 184th Wing and industry partners, the lab will conduct a series of exercises focused on improving how the service’s installations defend against small drones. 

The group will contribute to ACC’s Point Defense Task Force, a Department of the Air Force initiative focused on shoring up the service’s ability to protect its bases from new small UAS threats both domestically and abroad.

The battle lab at Grand Forks isn’t responsible for testing new capabilities or informing future requirements, but rather designing exercises that put the Air Force’s ability to effectively detect, track and destroy new small drone threats to the test, according to Col. Alfred Rosales, commander of the 319th RW.

“We’re not going to become a new test base for the Air Force testing things that have never been turned on,” Rosales told DefenseScoop. “This is an opportunity for us to build out exercises to further show that we can maintain our resiliency when it comes to defending the base and maintain our tactical air superiority above the airfield here.”

Following a number of drone incursions over U.S. military bases last year, the Defense Department has put considerable effort into improving its counter-sUAS posture. In August, the Pentagon stood up the Army-led Joint Interagency Task Force 401 to scale the department’s capabilities and tactics for installation drone defense. 

Rosales noted that while the threat has existed for years, it is one that is rapidly evolving in different ways and requires the Point Defense Battle Lab to tackle it from a new perspective.

The task force plans to regularly host exercises at Grand Forks Air Base, where industry vendors will be invited to participate with their existing counter-drone capabilities. The events will allow airmen to use the equipment against simulated adversaries to test the Air Force’s current tactics and procedures so that ACC can update them, Rosales said.

“Our role is to take and build these experiments and these exercises, to allow vendors to come in and [have] our airmen utilize their equipment that exists in hopes to build those tactics and those techniques and the procedures so that we can provide the technical data and lessons learned to Air Combat Command,” he explained.

The partnership with the 184th Wing is critical to the Point Defense Battle Lab’s operations, Rosales said. The national guard unit was selected to be part of the team due to its expertise in a range of mission areas — including cyber operations, air battle management, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, according to the Air Force.

“Our air battle managers, cyber warriors, ISR operators and AI specialists are ready to work alongside the 319th Reconnaissance Wing to ensure the success of the Point Defense Battle Lab and to enhance the security of Air Force installations,” Col. Joe Deeds, 84th Wing commander, said in a statement.

The battle lab will primarily host exercises at the Grand Forks installation, as it has an enhanced use lease with GrandSKY — a commercial UAS business and aviation park  — that allows the base to use its space for experiments, Rosales said. The team is also exploring ways to leverage the 184th’s Smoky Hill Air National Guard Range in Kansas for the initiative, he added.

“We are putting a whole wing approach at this,” Rosales said. “It’s all about trying to make our airmen ready for the next time we’re called upon to fight for wherever we’re allowed to, and to do that knowing we have practiced and we’re ready against any threat — regardless of where it comes from.”