Opinion
All The Pretty Airplanes Lined Up In A Row - Will America Get Serious About Force Protection From Drones Before It's Too Late?
By L Todd Wood
January 5, 2026
As a member of the Pentagon Press Corps, we have raised this issue with USAF management and look forward to their response on measures taken to address this serious threat.
If I was a domestic airbase commander, or overseas theater commander, this would give me nightmares -- an 18-wheeler pulls up a click from an airbase, the top opens, and scores of armed drones fly out, targeting your aircraft lined up on the ramp. Think billions in American force projection capability destroyed in a few minutes...at home, or abroad...irreplaceable.
Operation Spider Web by Ukraine* (aided by the West obviously) against the Russian Federation last year destroyed 30% of Russia's strategic airpower in minutes.
Drones fly out of large truck near Russian airbase in 2025
Russian strategic bombers destroyed on the ramp during Operation Spider Web
Americans are known throughout the decades to be not focused in peacetime on force protection. We can no longer afford that luxury.
Trump loves his B-2s, F-35s, and SOF helicopters, but they take years to build, and it would require money we don't have to replace them.
They must be protected at least to a minimal level.
https://armedforces.press/opinion/2026/01/05/all-the-pretty-airplanes-lined-up-in-a-row-will-america-get-serious-about-force-protection-from-drones-before-its-too-late/
