# Drone attack on airfields **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 3, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142 "2025-06-03T01:26:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/1 "2025-06-03T01:26:21Z")
The recent Ukrainian attack on Russian Air Force bases got me to thinking. What is to stop a nation state, or even moderately advanced non-state actors doing the same thing to our incredibly expensive warplanes, at a nominal cost. As I recall there are less than two dozen B-2s, mostly concentrated in one location, very near normal civilian activities. Or worse major civilian airports. Now every truck within a dozen miles (likely much more), could be a very real, short term threat. This seems like a genie that can not be put back in the bottle. And for which I can see no, even remotely effective defense. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/2 "2025-06-03T01:40:20Z")
Most US airports and bases are protected from consumer-level drones with frequency jamming. I don’t know what sort of protection Russian airbases employ, if any. They likely believed those airfields were far enough away they were out of reach, and thus lightly defended and unprepared. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/3 "2025-06-03T02:10:26Z")
> [@Sooner](#): > > The recent Ukrainian attack on Russian Air Force bases got me to thinking. Max Boot agrees with you. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/01/ukraine-drone-attack-russia-bombers/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/01/ukraine-drone-attack-russia-bombers/) ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/4 "2025-06-03T03:11:11Z")
Does that thought not also apply to all our air bases, and airports. Navy bases, power infrastructure… damn near everything Doubt you can jam everything, everywhere, always ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/5 "2025-06-03T03:23:51Z")
Technically, the USAF needs to keep many of its bombers out in the open, per treaties with Russia, in order so that Russia can verify the number of bombers via satellite imagery. I’d imagine that either the United States has to withdraw from such treaties so it can put the bombers into hardened shelters, or else erect very expensive anti-drone defenses around its airfields. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/6 "2025-06-03T03:54:39Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Most US airports and bases are protected from consumer-level drones with frequency jamming. Why would attackers be limited to consumer-level drones? Frequency jamming won’t work against fiber-optic drones > **[Fiber optic drone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_optic_drone)** > > A fiber optic drone is an uncrewed vehicle, typically an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (usually a FPV loitering munition) which uses an optical fiber as its primary guidance and control system. Those drones typically have fibre optic cables 5-20 km in length. They are very hard for defending forces to jam or detect. > Fiber optic first person view (FPV) drones were fielded by Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian War in the spring of 2024 and by Ukraine soon after. > Both Ukraine and Russia rely on el... Or against AI-operated drones > **[Ukraine Trained AI for Its ‘Spiderweb’ Airfield Drone Attacks at Aviation Museum](https://www.kyivpost.com/post/53784)** > > One advantage Ukraine has in its war against Russia’s invasion is having access to the same weapons systems its enemy uses, which helped in its preparations for attacks on Moscow’s strategic bombers. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/7 "2025-06-03T05:31:09Z")
Well there actually is a remotely effective defense, putting aircraft back into hardened or camouflaged bunkers. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/8 "2025-06-03T13:41:35Z")
The main defense is fear of retaliation, which doesn’t apply to Ukraine/Russia since they are already at war. And has less or no effect on non-state actors, they just lack that level of resources and expertise. For now. ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/9 "2025-06-03T16:28:25Z")
Could work for fighter sized aircraft But not bomber, tanker, cargo, or airliners ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/10 "2025-06-03T16:53:57Z")
This article on the technology evolution from commercial technology in the Ukraine. Drones with anti-jam, GPS denied capabilities are already in use. > **[Can Ukraine's Autonomous Drones Outsmart Cutting-Edge Russian Jamming?](https://spectrum.ieee.org/ukraine-killer-drones)** > > After dispatching its Ghost Dragon ISR quadcopters to Ukraine in mid-2022, Estonian startup KrattWorks quickly realized the need for continuous innovation due to rapid advances in electronic warfare. Their latest neural-network-driven optical... ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/11 "2025-06-03T17:05:52Z")
That’s the real threat here- drone terrorism. It’s not so much some bad actor bombing Whiteman AFB with drones from some nearby farm road, it’s some bad actor blowing up a flood gate, power substation, water purification plant, or a sewer lift station. Or really any number of other small, numerous, and vital infrastructure components that exist everywhere. Militarily speaking, although they could almost certainly pull off some kind of Pearl Harbor style attack within the US, they couldn’t hit _everything_, and Uncle Sam would be pissed off and out for blood if they did so. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/12 "2025-06-03T17:36:20Z")
404 Media is reporting that the Ukraine drones used in the airbase attacks used the open source ArduPilot software. They discuss the software being pretty versatile. It can provide autonomous flight when GPS is available, but it also can provide stabilization and pilot assistance in high latency environments, for example, if you’re controlling drones from hundreds of miles away only connected by laggy Russian mobile networks. > **[Ukraine's Massive Drone Attack Was Powered by Open Source Software](https://www.404media.co/ukraines-massive-drone-attack-was-powered-by-open-source-software/)** > > Ukraine used ArduPilot to help it wipe out Russian targets. It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/13 "2025-06-03T17:55:21Z")
I’d fear not just attacks on military targets which may or may not have active defenses, but more terroristic type attacks on civilian targets or civilians themselves. A Superbowl in an open air stadium in any major city is easily adjacent to a road where any random truck can access and unleash a hundred drones a few hundred yards away from the game. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/14 "2025-06-03T21:10:35Z")
You put 100 small drones at the end of commercial airport runways and create artificial bird strikes on planes taking off. They don’t have to be guided (so jamming wouldn’t work to stop them) if they just go up and hover in the flight path and get sucked in the engines. I think I’ll be staying on the ground for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/15 "2025-06-04T00:22:13Z")
All of this stuff is stuff you can already do though without drones. I remember reading way back in 2003 one of the fears for terrorism was terrorists with .50 cal sniper rifles shooting plane engines right as they took off from fields outside the airport. ---
**Author:** ![andrewm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@andrewm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewm)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/16 "2025-06-04T01:49:34Z")
> [@Sooner](#): > > What is to stop a nation state, or even moderately advanced non-state actors doing the same thing to our incredibly expensive warplanes, at a nominal cost. As I recall there are less than two dozen B-2s, mostly concentrated in one location, very near normal civilian activities B-2s don’t park outdoors. According to Wikipedia, they live inside “air-conditioned hangars … which are needed to maintain the aircraft’s stealth properties, particularly its “low-observable” stealth skins”. I’m no expert but I’m guessing you need a lot more than the hand-grenade sized munition carried by a quadcopter-size drone to punch through the roof of a (possibly hardened) hangar and then still have enough energy left to seriously damage the aircraft inside. > **[Northrop B-2 Spirit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_B-2_Spirit)** > > The Northrop B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses. A subsonic flying wing with a crew of two, the plane was designed by Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) as the prime contractor, with Boeing, Hughes, and Vought as principal subcontractors, and was produced from 1988 to 2000. The bomber can drop conventional and thermonuclear weapons, such as Development... ---
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/17 "2025-06-04T02:19:08Z")
> [@Sooner](#): > > Could work for fighter sized aircraft > > But not bomber, tanker, cargo, or airliners Why not? ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/18 "2025-06-05T00:58:20Z")
Absolutely correct So you target, two or more drones a few seconds apart on each shelter. As far as now their are no hardened shelters for large aircraft. Regardless B-52S, B-1s, AWACS, Tankers, vast majority of F-22s… pretty much sit in the same few unprotected locations for the majority of their lives. And a small swarm could decimate a civilian airport. And there is no need for updated guidance, just put a few on each known ramp position. ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/19 "2025-06-05T01:00:41Z")
I am ex Air Force, and never heard of a hardened shelter for a large aircraft ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142/20 "2025-06-05T01:08:52Z")
All this handwringing about drones and airports is silly. Guys with rifles could do the same for the last 100 years. Pickup trucks or vans filled with explosives can too. Since the 1950s. This is a glitzy novelty that’s walking up some slumbering wannabe armchair experts. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drone-attack-on-airfields/1019142.md?page=2)