The US Stars and Stripes news agency reports: “New technology used in a collaboration between the U.S. military and British authorities has detected more than 50 small drones violating the airspace around two bases used by the U.S. Air Force in England in the past nine months.”
Mildenhall is home to the U.S. Air Force’s 100th Air Refueling Wing, and the Air Force’s only F-15 fighter wing in Europe is based at Lakenheath.
“Of the 50 drones detected, five were recovered by police. They were piloted by hobbyists who “were found to not have malicious intent,” said Staff Sgt. Austin Grimmer, the 100th Security Forces Squadron non-commissioned officer in charge of counter-sUAS operations at Mildenhall. But the growing number of violations of military and commercial airspace by drones have led the U.S. Defense Department to draft a strategy to counter sUAS and the British to pass legislation giving police more power to stop them.”
“Integrating the U.S. and British counter-drone systems “provides a layered defense” to detect, track, identify and defeat unmanned aircraft, said Lt. Col. Charles Carabell, chief of police and security for the U.S. Air Forces Europe U.K. coordination cell. “
For more information
https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2021-06-25/Technology-US-UK-drones-1791610.html
(Image: Periam Photography / Shutterstock.com)
