The Pentagon's Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) is fielding counter-drone capabilities at the top 46 U.S. installations on its priority list and has been cleared to use high-energy lasers in the national airspace, executive director David Bagnati said Wednesday at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.
A "global priorities list" of a few hundred installations
One year after JIATF-401 was stood up to succeed the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, the interagency team has built a global priorities list that includes "a few hundred installations," Bagnati said, with procurement now underway for the top 46 U.S. sites. Led by U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, the 15-person interagency body reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg and is coordinating a layered defense combining kinetic systems, high-energy lasers, and — soon — high-power microwaves inside the national airspace.
MOU with FAA and DHS to fast-track new counter-UAS gear
Bagnati previewed an upcoming memorandum of understanding between the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security that "sets forth the process by which we're going to fast-track capabilities, new counter-UAS capabilities, into the national airspace." Bloomberg separately reported that the agreement will be signed within days and is aimed at authorizing new technologies to bring down unmanned aircraft at airports and military installations.
Deliveries include training, funding, and infrastructure
Bagnati stressed that when JIATF-401 provides a system to an installation, "we're not dropping it off at the front gate" — deliveries include operator training, sustainment funding under an agreement with the Army for one to two years, and infrastructure work such as pads, power, or fiber to support the new capability. The task force is also taking over the Joint Counter-UAS Training Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, previously aligned with the Army, and working to reposition it as a center of excellence.
Contractors already lining up
The push builds on a wave of Pentagon counter-drone awards this summer, including a $1.5B DHS counter-UAS IDIQ shared by Anduril, Booz Allen, GDIT, Leidos, and BAE, AeroVironment's $400M directed-energy counter-drone production award, and the Marines' $19M V2X Tempest buy. Together the moves signal a Pentagon-wide shift from ad-hoc procurement to a centrally prioritized, layered defense of U.S. installations.
Reporting based on coverage from Aerospace America and Bloomberg.