Remember that last year, when news came out of Northern Colorado, large clusters of drones were being spotted flying in formation overhead? No one knew why, and it seemed that nobody had an answer. The mysterious drone swarm even puzzled the governor, law enforcement and residents. Some people reported as many as 30 to 50 drones were seen flying around and reported these accounts to local sheriff departments all around Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The next question is, why?
Let me put into context what’s around this vast area where the drones have been seen. NOTHING… is the answer, but farms and cattle ranches. I became interested in this story because I was born in Greeley, Colorado, a small to medium-sized town in northern Colorado with a population of around 108,000 in 2018. Unless some local farmers got together and decided to kill some time with a new hobby, there is really no reason for this amount of drone activity. You do have the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, and I can see maybe some students doing some of this, but not to the extent which it had been reported.
When I first heard about this story, the first thing I thought was maybe the military because I’ve seen stories about test being done in Arizona with hundreds of small drones. On one occasion in 2017, a drone used in these Army exercises rode the jet stream winds and was found in the foothills west of Denver. Another incident in 2015 had a wayward drone from Fort Carson Army Base landing in a downtown Colorado Springs yard to the surprise of the residents.
The reports kept popping up all around a large area of these three states, and the federal agencies from the FAA to the Colorado Springs-based North American Aerospace Defense Command have denied any involvement. Then all of a sudden, the story just disappeared. It’s another mystery, and you know how I love a good mystery.
With everything going on in the world in 2020, I and just about everyone else in the world totally forgot about the mystery of the drones. Then just last week, I saw some sporadic news about this unsolved mystery, and we might just have an answer.
The Phillips County Sheriff’s Office first reported these drone sightings around December of 2018, noting that as many as 25 drones had been spotted in Phillips and Yuma counties. The two counties combined have just over 14,000 residents and aren’t known for having a large contingent of drone enthusiasts, but the sightings were just odd.
“We believe that the drones, though startling, are not malicious in nature,” the Phillips County sheriff said on Facebook. “The Sheriff’s Office is following up on leads and communications with state and federal agencies to pinpoint the exact nature of their activities.” These drone sightings have made national news, with newspapers and networks looking into this mystery.
No government agency has taken responsibility to include the FAA about the sightings. Still, many speculate that the location of where the drones are being seen can shed light on the answer. There is something else besides farms and ranches that call this sparsely populated location home. Nuclear missile silos are dotted all around this area, and some feel that the drone activity is connected in some way with these silos.
Air Force Global Strike Command has confirmed that it conducts counter-drone exercises out of F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne where it is based. The command oversees underground Minuteman silos spread across northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska, where the drone activity has been seen.
The Air Force isn’t putting their hand up in the air, saying that this is them, but they don’t deny this either, and officials out of Warren AFB are staying quiet about the possibility of this counter-drone testing.
On FAA maps, the region where the drones have been spotted to include Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick, and Yuma counties is marked with red dots of where drones are forbidden, restricted airspace presumably above missile silos.
The military has been conducting a counter-drone test at Warren to include extensive testing of civilian drones, which relies on technology made by the company Dedrone. This system is being developed in Europe and is designed to detect and track small civilian drones using the radio signals they require for control.
The 90th Security Support Squadron is running these tests at Warren, and the counter-drone program is one of many that the Defense Department is testing to defend against unmanned aircraft. These small drones with cameras could present a threat because they could give someone a clue on how to attack an intercontinental ballistic missile. These missiles are one leg of the Department of Defense’s Nuclear Triad against America’s enemies, and these drones represent a potential threat.
One thing that is known is that these silos can be protected from threats on the ground by helicopters that can be called from Warren AFB if need be, but these drones do pose a risk because they are commercially available and can be purchased on Amazon for as little as $50. In a news release, the Air Force said these commercial drones “provide a realistic training environment” from which they can learn about potential capabilities.
Dedrone is working with private companies and government entities to include the Air Force to detect drone flights and incursions. The firm has worked with F.E. Warren since an initial contract in 2017. The company hasn’t shed any light on these drone sightings but has stated that the Air Force is fond of testing F.E. Warren’s drone-detecting capabilities. The company went on and said, “They fly drones against what they have all the time.”
Some of these small drones have ended up on battlefields all around the world in recent years with the Islamic State using some drones to drop hand grenades on its enemies. Countering drone threats means quickly adjusting to the new technologies rapidly entering the drone market, and many can see the potential if misused by someone.
The Air Force is utilizing a growing array of counter-drone weapons intended for use on overseas battlefields to include a new truck-mounted laser delivered in October by Raytheon.
“Five years ago, few people worried about the drone threat,” Roy Azevedo, president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, said in a news release. “Now, we hear about attacks or incursions all the time. Our customers saw this coming and asked us to develop a ready now counter-drone capability.”
Counter drone efforts won’t be limited to F.E. Warren for long. The Air Force and other military branches are examining broader efforts to protect bases from drones. Colorado Springs bases, including Schriever Air Force Base and Peterson Air Force Base, where airmen control the nation’s military satellites, would be high on the Pentagon’s counter-drone priority list.
Mystery solved….Maybe? The possibility is excellent that these drones are a part of the Air force and are merely flying these drones in an attempt to learn how to defend against them. Then again, it wouldn’t surprise me that some college pranksters on a Friday night wanted to create their own mischief and cause a disturbance in the sparsely populated countryside.
So, drunk college kids or the Air Force, either way, the mystery has been solved.
NEXT.