Drone, Missile Defense Top Priorities for Incoming Trump Defense Secretary

Trump Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth will have plenty of challenges facing him if he indeed is confirmed to the top post at the Pentagon following four years of military chaos and mismanagement under Joe Biden. One of the most critical threats he must address is the vulnerability of the American homeland and overseas assets to missile and drone attacks.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has enjoyed decades of relatively low threat levels from foreign adversaries. Outside of 9/11, there have been no major attacks on American soil, and the specter of nuclear Armageddon has thankfully faded into the background.

But that dynamic may now be changing with China’s development of advanced hypersonic weapons and the advent of “drone swarm” technology that could overwhelm existing U.S. defense capabilities.

Since Ronald Reagan, U.S. presidents have largely understood the importance of continuing to upgrade and modernize America’s missile defense shield. Reagan wisely recognized that “peace through strength” was the best deterrent to war with the Soviet Union, and that strategy eventually led to the U.S.S.R.’s collapse.

President Joe Biden, however, has abandoned this wisdom, believing instead that bolstering the U.S. military’s capabilities is “provocative” and “destabilizing.” Despite the demonstrated importance of state-of-the-art missile defense systems in the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, Biden cut missile defense funding in his Fiscal Year 2025 budget.

Biden has also slashed funding for directed energy defense systems, which are emerging as the next revolutionary technology in missile and drone defense, and his administration has reduced purchases of missile interceptor systems like those used in Israel’s Iron Dome.

During its October 7 attacks last year, Hamas used drones as a critical part of its assault on Israel. Hezbollah and Iran-sponsored Houthi terrorists have also used drones extensively, while Israel has used drones to eliminate Hamas leaders. In the Russian war against Ukraine, unmanned platforms such as drones and glide bombs have severely hampered Ukraine’s defensive forces and cities, while Ukraine has used its own drones to conduct long-range missions deep inside Russian territory.

Both conflicts have seen an escalating arms race in offensive missiles and drone technology on the one hand and systems to defend against missiles and drones on the other.

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, who last month observed Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones and attacks in Odessa, told me that the U.S. would have difficulty repelling those weapons if they were launched at U.S. military assets or civilian targets.

The U.S. “could not do the same homeland defense as Ukraine,” he said. “All of the attacks I have seen, we would fail miserably in defending the homeland.”

Former Defense Undersecretary John Rood told me in an interview that, over the last four years, America has “lost ground to our adversaries” since the White House did not treat missile defense “as a primary warfare area.” He specifically noted the Pentagon’s failure to secure critical defense installations in the United States from Chinese drones and spy balloons.

Admiral Montgomery likewise stated that the last four years were “lost” when it comes to missile defense.

Moreover, the threat from drones and missiles is much more serious and immediate than most Americans realize. According to a Wall Street Journal report out last month, in December 2023 a swarm of “mystery drones” flew over Langley Air Force base in Virginia as well as Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval port. The drones returned numerous times over the course of 17 days – yet still, the military was unable to track them and had no idea who was flying them or what their intentions were.

U.S. officials also confirmed that more unidentified drone swarms were spotted in recent months near Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles, and over military bases in Alaska.

General Glen VanHerck, former Commander of the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said that the Army has “observed drones for years” around American bases. Still, the incursion over Langley was “unlike any” in the past. After the incidents, VanHerck informed Congress that the Pentagon had limited options to address the threat of drones and other unknown flying objects over the United States.

During a discussion with missile defense specialists, VanHerck said that the U.S. military lacked the legal, logistical, and military tools to stop drone incursions under the Biden administration. He stated that “hypersonic platforms, low-observable missiles, drones, and other modern equipment” challenge the U.S. military’s ability to identify threats and eliminate them. Effectively countering drones in particular will require careful action from the federal government to balance the privacy rights of American drone owners while ensuring the military has the capabilities it needs to know who and what is flying near military installations.

If these deficiencies are not addressed quickly, he continued, U.S. adversaries “will perceive that we are not serious about defending our homeland.”

The United States is now facing an emerging alliance of Russia, China, and Iran which have all made great strides in drone and missile technology in recent years. Russia has collaborated with China and Iran on drone capabilities since the early 2000s, according to a defector from Russian Military Counterintelligence who requested anonymity to speak to me.

Biden has undoubtedly left the United States facing a more dangerous and hostile world, with the threats from enemy missiles and drones growing by the day. It will be up to President Trump and his military leadership to address this threat before it’s too late.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.