Analyst: Incident is 'realistic scenario of a drone threat'
US reportedly detects drones over Washington base where Rubio, Hegseth live
Multiple drones identified on single night over Fort McNair, sources tell Washington Post; US secretary of state and Pentagon chief have remained on site
by Reuters, Luke Tress Follow You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page and ToI Staff · The Times of IsraelUS officials detected unidentified drones above an army base in Washington where US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth live, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing three people briefed on the situation.
The officials have not determined where the drones came from, the report said, citing two of the sources.
But the drones’ detection comes as the US military is monitoring potential threats more closely because of a heightened alert level over the US-Israeli war with Iran, the report said. Since the beginning of the war on February 28, Iran has retaliated with missile and drone barrages at Israel and countries across the region.
The drones’ sighting over Fort McNair prompted officials to weigh relocating Rubio and Hegseth, the report said. However, the secretaries have not moved, the report added, citing a senior administration official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the incident, said it occurred within the past 10 days, and that multiple drones were detected on the same night.
According to the report, officials locked down facilities twice this week at another base, the MacDill Air Force Base, home to US Central Command, which is responsible for US military operations against Iran, due to a suspicious package and an unspecified incident.
The Pentagon and the US State Department did not respond to requests for comment. Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell declined to discuss the drones with the Washington Post.
“The department cannot comment on [Hegseth’s] movements for security reasons, and reporting on such movements is grossly irresponsible,” he told the Post.
Incident illustrates threat from non-military drones — expert
The drone infiltration in Washington, DC, exemplifies the potential threat from readily available, non-military drones, said an expert who spoke with The Times of Israel.
Kateryna Bondar, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC, research institute, warned about potential threats from off-the-shelf drones in an interview with The Times of Israel on Wednesday.
Bondar is a former adviser to the Ukrainian government who has studied drone warfare in Ukraine and written about Iranian drone warfare.
She said that Iran probably cannot attack the US homeland with its military drones, but that bad actors could utilize commercially available drones from within the US.
“A threat that everyone here is underestimating is bringing a striking capability here,” she said. “Not only Iran, but anyone can do that, especially taking into account that the US doesn’t have any internal countermeasures.”
Assailants could bring a drone to within a couple of kilometers of a target, so the short, speedy flight would evade air defenses, she said.
“It will take a minute, and no air defense will be able to react. Even if they want to strike a military facility, nothing can react and intercept that,” she said. “It’s small. Radars are not adapted to this kind of identification. They look like birds.”
After the drone scare over Fort McNair, Bondar said, “This is what I mean when thinking of a realistic scenario of a drone threat.”
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the State Department ordered all US diplomatic posts worldwide to immediately begin security evaluations, citing developments in the Middle East and “the potential for spillover effects.”