Drones Swarm Nuclear Bomber Base, Exposing Potential Threat to U.S. Aircrews
The drones appeared to be custom built and required “advanced knowledge” of signal operations.
Barksdale Air Force Base (BAFB), a major U.S. strategic bomber installation in northwest Louisiana, has just experienced an unusually serious series of unauthorized drone incursions over its most sensitive areas.
More than a dozen unsanctioned drones repeatedly swarmed a US Air Force base that is home to a nuclear bomber fleet — and were able to resist efforts to bring them down via jamming technology, according to military officials.
The restricted airspace of Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana, was infiltrated by “multiple unauthorized drones” between March 9 and March 15, a base spokesperson told The Post.
The 22-acre installation located east of Shreveport, hosts a fleet of B-52 bombers which can carry out nuclear strikes with “worldwide precision,” according to the Air Force.
As an Air Force Global Strike Command base, Barksdale also plays a crucial role in the Air Force’s nuclear defense capabilities.
BREAKING 🔴🔴
Barksdale Air Force Base, in northwestern Louisiana:
Military officials report that more than 12 to 15 unauthorized drones swarmed the base, which hosts the U.S. nuclear B-52 bomber fleet.
The drones resisted jamming efforts, with multiple waves detected over… pic.twitter.com/umkoCcHtfL
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 21, 2026
Base officials are joining forces with federal and local law enforcement agencies to determine the origin of the drones.
“The security of our installation and the safety of our people are top priorities, and we will continue to vigilantly monitor our airspace,” the official added.
Barksdale is east of Shreveport in Louisiana and encompasses 22,000 acres with a population of around 15,000.
The drone detections come amid heightened security at Air Force bases in the U.S. as the war in Iran continues.
A shelter-in-place order was issued on March 9 at the base that was lifted shortly after, but the drone sights continued through the week.
Briefing details say the aircraft showed “non‑commercial signal characteristics,” suggesting they were not typical off‑the‑shelf hobby drones.
The briefing includes a determination that the drones were different than what the typical consumer could purchase off the shelf. They appeared to be custom built and required “advanced knowledge” of signal operations.
The analysts said “with high confidence” they expected unauthorized drones to continue to operate in and around Barksdale Air Force Base in the immediate future.
“The drone incursions at BAFB pose a significant threat to public safety and national security since they require the flight line to be shut down while also putting manned aircrafts already inflight in the area at risk,” the document said.
The FAA referred ABC News to the military for comment. The Louisiana State Police, which is also assisting the investigation, declined to comment.
The base is home of the 2nd Bomb Wing, part of the U.S. Air Force under Air Force Global Strike Command.
It is equipped with 44 B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers. The base also houses 20 B-52 bombers from the 307th Reserve Bomb Wing.
Barksdale is also the headquarters of the US Air Force Global Strike Command, which controls most of the nuclear bomber fleet and strategic ballistic missile operations.
The 2d Bomb Wing is the largest bomb wing in the U.S. Air Force.
Day-to-day, the wing falls under Eighth Air Force and Air Force Global Strike Command until the wing is activated for its nuclear mission, in which it then reports directly to the commander of U.S. Strategic Command. The 2d Bomb Wing is composed of four groups: the 2d Operations Group, the 2d Maintenance Group, the 2d Mission Support Group, and the 2d Medical Group.
At the time of this report, no other drone incursions have been reported at any U.S. military installations in this country.
The federal government issued new warnings at the end of last week about the penalties for flying drones in restricted airspace.
In a press release issued Friday, the DOD, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and the FAA touted the government’s detection capabilities, declaring that Uncle Sam has a “zero-tolerance policy” for illegal drone operations and threatening rule violators with “severe consequences,” including potential fines upwards of $100,000, criminal charges, incarceration, and the confiscation of their systems.
“To enforce this zero-tolerance policy, our military and law enforcement agencies are equipped with state-of-the-art technology to detect unauthorized drone activity, often before it becomes a visible threat. This technology allows authorities to not only detect an unauthorized drone but also to quickly and precisely locate the operator,” per the release.
Waves of custom-built drones that can shrug off jamming and force runway shutdowns are not an abstract policy problem; they are a direct, immediate hazard to aircrews, maintainers, and surrounding communities.
While federal agencies now tout a “zero-tolerance” posture and “state-of-the-art” detection tools, the fact remains that for nearly a week, unknown operators were able to probe one of our most sensitive nuclear installations and then simply disappear.
Until officials can demonstrate not only that they can see these systems but also reliably identify and stop their operators, the service members at Barksdale and at every other stateside base will continue to shoulder the risk posed by a rapidly evolving drone threat and a still-catching-up regulatory and defensive response.
I hope they catch up quickly.
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Comments
How come we never seem able to follow the drones with our own drones?
Which I believe are sent by Iranian sympathizers
They likely followed the transmission to its source and are working to get everyone involved. As to shooting the drones, the population build up around the base is very dense and civilians would be hurt. Then CNN and all the usual suspects would be all over us. But the danger of these little things would occur on take off and an explosive would not be necessary.
There is one golden rule that all nuclear powers abide by. You don’t screw with other nations nuclear delivery systems or control. It is way to easy miscalculate.
You’re assuming rational behavior by fundamentally irrational men. Is the leadership of Iran (that which remains) rational?
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I dont’ understand why these weren’t shot down? Or were they?
No, they were not.
Yes, why weren’t they shot down?
Mainly because shooting into the air to defend a base in peacetime has been deemed a very bad thing to do. Shooting surface-to-air missiles at aircraft penetrating the air base airspace is also considered much too aggressive and permanent a solution to the threat of an airborne attack.
It’s a STUPID rule-of-engagement. But it’s what’s there, because we don’t want to upset the neighbors. (It exists alongside the rule that you can’t carry a firearm onto a base, because guns might hurt someone.)
Surface to air missiles would work but way too expensive. Other solutions include CIWIS (or however you spell it) but insufficient ammunition for a swarm, microwaves. laser, electronic warfare. Those are the ones I know of.
We should license Israeli iron beam and build a lot. It seems farther along than US efforts.
Thing is, these wouldn’t be large enough for SAMs. Expensive or not.
And they are likely low enough altitude that well-trained shotgun shooters could bring them down. They can’t be that robust.
The advantage of shotguns (assuming altitude is appropriate) is that birdshot is unlikely to cause any damage falling on houses and such.
I agree on the laser thing. We should have nukes to run them, though.
They just airlifted a mini nuke – somewhere? Not sure where. So they do have mini nukes so that is a good possibility.
The CIWIS uses I think 20mm shells that self-destruct. Only problem is it can run out quickly and take something like 30 minutes to rearm. Shotguns require soldiers so you need enough of them out there 24×7. Also they need to acquire the target so you to pick it up far enough out and assign targets to each soldier. A bit cumbersome.
A 10 gauge goose gun could reach out quite effectively, though the recoil is rather stout. I flew B-52s out of there for 25 years, and migratory birds were always monitored. Occasionally flocks would try to appropriate foliage or wetlands near the approach patterns and would have to be encouraged to leave by troops making loud noises by various means. To my knowledge we never lost an aircraft due to a bird strike, but did have occasional damage. That’s why the Almighty gave the Buff 8 engines!
There were only 12-15 drones according to the article. Two items. One is that someone is sending a message. Iran or China. Two we have the best sigint in the world. We monitored the incursion and tracked them back to the source. Then we tell the world “ every one of our partners are investigating”. We make them feel comfortable and let them attempt it again and then drop the hammer. Do the Chinese own agriculture land near the base? Where is the closest mosque and does it have a radical Shia imam?
We are in a moment in history where David is beating Goliath. We have no effective means of bringing down drones. Right now in our country, thanks to Biden, there are probably thousands of enemy drones waiting for their orders to attack. They leave no footprint so there nation of origin is unknown, retaliation is impossible. With just a few small bombs they can wipe out damns, power stations, aircraft, ships, data centers, major events such as a football stadium full ofpeople and other critical entities. We are basically defenseless. This why Iran has not surrendered and won’t.
No. You’re conflating large drones with quadcopters. No quadcopter is blowing up a dam. No quadcopter is taking out the entire ramp at Barksdale. No US Navy ships are sinking because of a quadcopter.
The large drones that might (maybe) blow up a dam, like the Iranian Shaheed, are much easier to detect, to trace back to a launch point, and to figure out who built it by looking at the remains.
Drones are a useful weapon, and some tactics need to change. (Mostly, ROE needs to change.) But they are not going to “Change warfare forever” or change military strategy and basic concepts.
(BTW, I could set up mortar tubes outside sensitive locations and rig them to fire either remotely or on a timer. And it would achieve the same thing, if you’re going for the destructive goal.)
You’re living in the past much as our generals are. There are many different types of drones and our country is full of them, unlike Russia. Your idea of a mortar is absurd. The operator has to be very close to the target and has to have a spotter plus carry heavy shells and plate. One $500 drone can drop a mortar shell on a dime with operator miles away. One small mortar shell on a B-52 and it’s over. One drone on electrical substation can darken a city. Damns are more fragile than you know because the main body would not be the target, only the control centers.
I do know mortars. And I guarantee, given the materials, I could manufacture one with a timer and be long gone. The M1 mortar (which would be more capable than most homebuilt) had a range of almost 2/3 mile.
The drone can be observed on its way in and out, and is much slower, generally. Allowing it to be defeated.
If you’re going to drone a substation, why not simply lob mortars over the fence.
And if you’re hitting the control center for the damn, you’re NOT “blowing up the damn.” You may stop it from operating properly, but American damns that you might want to destroy are generally fairly large, robust constructions and could handle a single mortar pretty easily.
Stop making drones into these giant-killer “we’re all gonna die in the next war” bogeymen. They aren’t. They are a tool with some capabilities and their own vulnerabilities.
Most of what we need isn’t new technology, but an acknowledgement that the oceans don’t protect us as much as they used to, and a change in our mindsets and attitudes (and ROE).
In my first Iraq deployment we got hit daily with mortars. It got so bad we had to keep everyone inside during the ‘normal’ timeframe for attacks. The first week we had 12 casualties to mortar attacks on a 600 meter by 600 meter FOB.Went on the entire deployment. I got TBI from two 120mm rounds hitting the roof above my position and one impacted just outside my window blown the sandbag ‘wall’ back into the room. All one 3 round attack got dinged on the noggin with some concrete flying around.
The bad guys would ride in a pick up, drop the base plate, set the tube along a berm, fire off 3-4 rounds, grab up their base plate and tube then be gone before the first round impacted. In more than a few places they had the point of origin ‘zeroed’ on our location. Mortars are pretty simple to operate, relatively cheap, relatively easy to move.
We couldn’t get a radar fix on the point of origin before they were gone b/c it takes a couple rounds to get a good fix. As a result our counter battery fire was largely for show v shoot and scoot tactics. Unless we had a patrol very close, usually multiple patrols to move towards choke points to head them off on their likely avenue of withdrawal they got in free licks.
Complicating this further the bad guys would use many, many different points of origin. Often setting up in someone’s ‘yard’. Almost always they bullied the folks on the ground into getting out of the way. We’d show up and the bad guys were long gone. Then when our counter battery fire got better b/c we could make good educated guess about point of origin from incomplete radar and more familiarity with sector and could better respond by maneuvering patrols to respond these guys moved across the river…into another BN area of operation. Then we had to coordinate with that unit to ‘clear for fire’ before using counter battery fire.
Mortars are a real pain in the ass and remain very relevant on the battlefield. Especially in a drone environment b/c of their ease of use, simple set up, easy to break down and mobility.
You are correct about drones being a game changing adaptation.. Particularly v high value targets, lightly defended infrastructure targets and prestige targets like a Naval vessel. Swarms of drones along with missiles and some aircraft flying low would in the right circumstances be devastating. They ain’t a world beater but they are a very big pain in the ass. They put a relatively cheap tool into the hands of bad guys. As GWB stated much of the issue can be mitigated with tactics, an updated ROE and IMO more specialized anti drone ordinance. We may need to look at what drone tech should be available for civilian purchase, geo location trackers, higher regulatory burden/licencing requirements and very strict operating rules from FAA. In particular better property right protection keeping drones above 500 Ft. Do that and create a presumption that any drone less than 500 Ft is doing something nefarious and can be shot down by property owners including gov’t and we mitigate much of the domestic threat.
Most consumer drones are restricted to 400 feet or below, unless they get a waiver. If you’re going to shoot down every drone under 400 feet, you’re going to have a whole bunch of pissed-off drone operators banging on your door.
Mandatory 20 years in prison for flying a drone over military and other restricted air space, No parole. There is no reason to do this,
Yes. Make it a non-negotiable sentence, too. “Sorry it was just a lark, kid. But you should know better. Don’t worry, you’ll be out before you hit middle age.”
Drone warfare has changed the game. You don’t need much to build one. Not like a missile. We need a cheap means of killing them. Perhaps a cheap drone able to loiter for hours and land but also able to target and destroy incoming drones.
I know we are working on anti-drone technology because I see stories all the time but we need to work faster and scale up manufacturing and deployment.
My tinfoil hat suggests a resurgence of falconry.
Start with the simple and proven.
Then look for technological solutions.
All one drone would have to do is land on the wing of a B52 and leave a termite bomb. The B52 would be toast.
Yeah those termite bombs are awful. Much worse than thermite bombs.
The wings are still made of wood?!
A termite bomb may work in a Bellanca or a Ford TriMotor…
“state-of-the-art” detection tools
Well, Mk1 Eyeball is a pretty adequate detection tool.
The defense tools don’t really need to be very “state-of-the-art” either. Shotguns with birdshot should handle most any quadcopter-sized drone. Lots of troops out walking the perimeter of secure areas, armed with shotguns and weapons free.
The issue with shotguns is the effective range shooting up at a bird or drone is about 40-50 yards max. If the drones are made of say aircraft aluminum rather than plastic probably closer to 35 yards. So if they fly it at 200 ft you would never have a chance of hitting it with enough force to take it down. They need one of those laser systems like the Israelis have. I am sure we are testing one somewhere, bring it to the base and run some real life tests.
If the drones are made of say aircraft aluminum
And that would take more equipment than most have available. It’s not impossible, by any stretch, but it’s going to be tougher.
As to range, use magnum loads. Choke does wonders for keeping the spread manageable.
I’m certainly not saying it’s a panacea, but it’s a start. Mostly by allowing defenders to shoot them down, at all.
As to tech? I would modify the microwave area denial tech. It’s short range, too, but we’re talking perimeters immediately around targets.
Drones I take it can be well above shotgun and maybe rifle range.. One needs to be grounded to see what’s making them tick, where they are from and whose they are.
They also are a hazard to aircraft obviously, so this isn’t a game.
The Navy has been shooting down drones with a laser mounted on the ship. They have had success with it. The AF also had laser technologies available. My guess is they don’t want to give away their technological advantage by using it in this situation. Besides we could send them to Guam to operate against Iran if we wanted too.
That ship mounted laser has power issues. One was good for only 4 kills during a test. On land this power problem could be mitigated.
Easy solution. Barksdale invites the local boys over to the base. Bring your shotguns and ammo, we’ll supply the rostered pig and Dixie beer.
End of drone problem…
A “22 acre installation”?
The state of news reporting is in the toilet.
randy
I noticed that and looked at 22 acres I lived on and thought I couldn’t even park a B-52 on it, much less take off. To be fair, later on they said 22,000.
the drones might have been sent by our own military to prove how vulnerable we are to attacks by these super sophisticated yet simple to use military grade weapons
they still wont explain the hoax that the west coast was going to be hit by iranian drones
that hoax was perpetuated to cover up the muss/blmplo threat to hollywooders who would have stormed the facility and act out
dont care if the msm says it was a directive from the fbi>>trump
why has that threat info died down?????
the military brass always thinks in terms of B2 bombers when the solution is SO much simpler. Just build double barreled 10 ga. gun mounts that are radar controlled. Something similar to a light weight ciws. The falling shot will not harm much of anything. The directed shot will. Just ask anyone with a Christmas goose on the table.
They can only try jamming? No capacity for any kinetic response? That seems negligent.
How can I trust a news report when it claims that an USAF base is only 22 acres in size??
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