Soldier of Fortune: Threatening Skies: Countering the Drone Swarm Apocalypse

by Austin Lee

Picture this: A swarm of cheap drones, hundreds strong, blotting out the Texas sun like a biblical plague of locusts. Each carries enough explosive to ruin your day, buzzing low over a sleepy border town. No radar pings, no warning; just chaos. This isn’t a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s the playbook unfolding in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East, and that experts fear could appear in your neighborhood. From Chinese battlefield drone tech to the New Jersey drone flap of 2024 to Mexican cartels smuggling dope across the Rio Grande, the drone threat is real, and it’s encroaching on American soil.

The Drone War Blueprint: China is Watching, Learning, and Building

Late last year, unidentified drone sightings were spotted near at least 17 U.S. military bases that are adjacent to Chinese-owned farmland. The incursions span the country, near bases in Hawaii, Utah, Florida, and elsewhere. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has raised alarms, saying he believes some of the drones are Chinese spy craft.

“We need to identify who is behind these drones,” McCaul told reporters. “My judgment based on my experience is that those that are over our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming from the People’s Republic of China.”

READ MORE: Amid Blood and Chaos, Foreign Powers Exploit Ukraine as a Live-Fire Test Lab

The alarm is well founded. Beijing controls 80-90% of the global commercial drone market, creating products that easily can be turned into weapons. China churns out quadcopters like the Mavic, which Ukraine transformed into grenade-toting killers. Beijing also is bolstering Russia’s drone war, supplying components for Shahed and Garpiya-3 drones, as per Ukrainian intel.