--- title: U.S. Working to Preserve Drone Dominance description: The U.S. military is worried about being attacked by foreign drones—and about protecting the airmen operating ours canonical: https://time.com/45949/us-drone-dominance/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-02T03:22:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:08:30.263Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. Working to Preserve Drone Dominance og:description: The U.S. military is worried about being attacked by foreign drones—and about protecting the airmen operating ours og:url: https://time.com/45949/us-drone-dominance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1eae42ffbece6d98/6986886a810bbbdc03c90cbd/86005447.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Air Force Works To Meet Increased Demand For Predator Aircraft og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Working to Preserve Drone Dominance twitter:description: The U.S. military is worried about being attacked by foreign drones—and about protecting the airmen operating ours twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1eae42ffbece6d98/6986886a810bbbdc03c90cbd/86005447.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Working to Preserve Drone Dominance > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Apr 2, 2014 3:22 AM UTC  Drone operators like these at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada... Drone operators like these at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada... Ethan Miller / Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Apr 2, 2014 3:22 AM UTC Some things never change in war. It began with rocks among cavemen, until one of them sharpened his stone, creating a better weapon. That, in turn, spawned the shield. The same thing is happening now with drones. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles—they go by a variety of names inside the U.S. military—came into their own following 9/11\. Once [outfitted](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,184971,00.html) with _Hellfire_ missiles and other weaponry, they created a new kind of war. _Predator_ begat _Reaper_ begat _Global Hawk_.  A Predator drone flies over Afghanistan. Veronique de Viguerie / Getty Images They lurked out of sight and sound, some killing in an instant when the trigger was pulled, perhaps on the other side of the world. For more than a decade, U.S. drones stood pretty much alone at the top of the hunter-killer pyramid. Well, one thing is sure: the [rest of the world](http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/when-the-whole-world-has-drones-20130321), including the bad guys, aren’t standing still. That’s got the Army—you know, the guys most likely to be attacked by enemy drones—a little concerned. “U.S. forces will be increasingly threatened by reconnaissance and armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the near and far future,” the service [says](https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=229a2dff50b9cff8ce24a68bbf849f1b&tab=core&%5Fcview=1), detailing a two-day session on the topic in Huntsville, Ala., later this month. Written proposals on ways to defeat enemy drones were due April 1. “All levels of detection, decision, and defeat should be considered when developing and proposing a capability,” the Army says. Since the Army calls drones “UAVs,” it only makes sense that it calls its yet-to-be-perfected drone-killing technologies “CUAS,” for Counter Unmanned Aerial System capabilities. “Engagement options should consider the echelon of employment, air and ground coordination measures, prevention of civilian casualties, fratricide, cost per engagement, and the number of engagements possible in a surge application,” the Army says. “Both kinetic and non-kinetic solutions are encouraged” (“Kinetic” means destruction by physical collision, like the 20-pound warhead on an AGM-114 _Hellfire_. “Non-kinetic” means a way of defeating a drone using electronic warfare or other ways of keeping an incoming drone away from its target). “Only U.S. based and owned companies are eligible to respond,” the Army says. “Foreign participation is not authorized for this effort.” Meanwhile, the Air Force wants to construct an “RPA Mission Control Complex Physical Protection System” around its drone [operations](https://medium.com/war-is-boring/4101a10c1231) at Creech Air Force Base outside Las Vegas. (The Air Force prefers to call its drones RPAs—Remotely-Piloted Aircraft—emphasizing that a person remains in control, even if not in the cockpit). The northeast corner of Creech is where airmen sit at desks and control many of the MQ-1 _Predators_ and MQ-9 _Reapers_ that have been flying over Afghanistan and Iraq for the past decade. The service is [seeking](https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=6fe081d709cbad1aaf2b3a9fc87ee7ff&tab=core&%5Fcview=1) someone to build an “Intrusion Detection System (IDS) Sensor Platform Fence” at Creech. “The project,” it adds, “will include construction of circulation control fences within the Mission Complex secured area to provide secondary security and compartmentalize access at seven (7) Base-identified critical facilities and areas.” Such a fence, of course, will help stop intruders on the ground. But it won’t be much help against…drones. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/45949/us-drone-dominance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/45949/us-drone-dominance/"},"headline":"U.S. Working to Preserve Drone Dominance","datePublished":"2014-04-02T03:22:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:30.263Z","description":"The U.S. military is worried about being attacked by foreign drones—and about protecting the airmen operating ours","url":"https://time.com/45949/us-drone-dominance/","keywords":["Military","Army","Drones","Weapons","Air Force","National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1eae42ffbece6d98/6986886a810bbbdc03c90cbd/86005447.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1eae42ffbece6d98/6986886a810bbbdc03c90cbd/86005447.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Air Force Works To Meet Increased Demand For Predator Aircraft","caption":"Air Force Works To Meet Increased Demand For Predator Aircraft","creditText":"Ethan Miller / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/45949/us-drone-dominance/","name":"U.S. Working to Preserve Drone Dominance"}}]}] ```