HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — One year after its establishment, the Pentagon’s interagency team focused on improving drone defenses has created a “global priorities list” that includes “a few hundred installations,” according to its executive director.
“We just started procurement for those installations to help the installations beef up their [counter-drone] capabilities,” David Bagnati, of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, said during a Wednesday panel at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium here. “Right now, we’re working on the top 46 sites across the U.S.”
Led by U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, JIATF-401 is composed of 15 interagency representatives and reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg. It succeeds the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office.
Bagnati said the group is taking a layered approach to drone defense, adding “we are now accepted to use high-energy lasers in the national airspace. We’re also working to now include in that high-power microwaves within the national airspace.”
He referenced an upcoming memorandum of understanding between the Pentagon, FAA and Department of Homeland Security that “sets forth the process by which we’re going to fast-track capabilities, new counter-UAS capabilities, into the national airspace.”
When JIATF-401 provides equipment to an installation, “we’re not dropping it off at the front gate,” Bagnati said. “We bring with it training. We bring with it funding … if we have to make any changes on the installation in the infrastructure to support that capability. Maybe it’s a pad. Maybe it’s pulling power. Maybe it’s fiber.”
JIATF-401 is also contributing “technical know-how” and, through an agreement with the Army, sustainment funding for the counter-drone equipment “for one or two years,” he said.
Additionally, Bagnati said JIATF-401 is taking responsibility for the Joint Counter-UAS Training Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which was previously “aligned with the Army.” The interagency team is “working to turn it into a center of excellence,” he said.
“We are making progress with the interagency,” he added, but “we’ve got a long way to go.”
