U.S. Army-led task force seeks counter-drone coordination

Driving the news: Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus revealed the task force, still in its infancy, at a Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank event July 2.

• "We need an organization that is joint, interagency, has ... a colorless pot of money and the authorities to go from requirements all the way through acquisition in a rapid way, to be able to keep pace with that," he said.

The intrigue: Mingus likened the drone-counter-drone threat to that of improvised explosive devices so often encountered during the global war on terror.

• "We cannot move fast enough in this space," he said.
• An explosive drone strike in early 2024 killed three U.S. troops at Tower 22 in Jordan.

Zoom in: The Army is expected to lead the task force.

• Few other details are available.
• Questions sent to the service — concerning the task force's name, expected size and metrics of success — were not immediately answered.

Zoom out: The drone threat has existed for years. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict opened Pandora's box while the Russia-Ukraine war injected its consequences into social media algorithms.

Flashback: Under the Biden administration, the Pentagon launched the Replicator initiative, which sought to quickly find, buy and deploy thousands of drones and countermeasures.

• Critics said it was too little too late.

Go deeper: Dominating drone defense