Uninvited guests in Bossier Parish

• Custom-built, jam-resistant. The drones weren’t off-the-shelf products. They required what the briefing called “advanced knowledge” of signal operations. They entered and exited in patterns suggesting deliberate efforts to avoid revealing the operators’ location. Barksdale’s electronic countermeasures—designed to disable GPS and sever datalinks between drones and operators—didn’t work. If the drones carried autonomous navigation systems, jamming wouldn’t affect them. If they used anti-jamming techniques, that implies a level of sophistication that rules out hobbyists. At Belgium’s Kleine Brogel Air Base—which stores American B61 nuclear bombs—drones tested Belgian radio frequencies before switching to ones the jammers couldn’t reach. Belgium subsequently authorized its military to shoot down drones over its bases. The United States hasn’t.
• The jurisdictional circle. The Air Force told the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office about the incursions but didn’t ask for help. A sheriff’s sergeant told the Louisiana Illuminator: “At this time we don’t have any information because the investigation is being handled entirely by the Air Force.” The Air Force calls it a law enforcement matter. Louisiana State Police declined to comment. The FAA referred inquiries to the military.
• The 75 percent problem. General Gregory Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command—the combatant command responsible for defending the homeland—told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 19 that drone detections over military installations have increased. He allowed that better detection equipment might partly explain the rise. Then the number: “Whereas a year ago, almost every one that was detected was not defeated, now about a quarter of the ones that we detect we’re able to defeat.” Three-quarters of all detected drone incursions over American military bases still can’t be stopped. NORTHCOM owns one counter-drone flyaway kit. More are expected in late spring.
• The war connection no one will confirm. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said drone incursions nationwide have risen since Epic Fury began. Iran claims to have used more than 2,000 drones in the conflict since late February. An advisory by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation referenced unverified intelligence suggesting Iran had explored launching drones from offshore platforms near California, though officials stressed the information was “aspirational” and not tied to a specific threat. NORTHCOM declined to say whether the Barksdale incursions had any connection to Iran. “There have been several incursions,” a spokesperson said, “but we have not determined nefarious intent.”
• The pattern before Barksdale. In December 2023, drones flew over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia—home to F-22 stealth fighters—for 17 consecutive nights. Some were estimated at 20 feet long, flying above 100 miles an hour. The Air Force canceled nighttime training missions and moved the F-22s to another base. The operators have never been identified. In August 2024, drones flew over Plant 42 in Palmdale, California—home to Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and the Northrop Grumman facility building the B-21 Raider stealth bomber—for seven consecutive nights. Security forces pursued the drones off-base and lost them. Nobody got a single photograph.
• One kit for the country. NORTHCOM’s flyaway kit—a deployable package of detection equipment, jammers, and an autonomous interceptor drone called Anvil—successfully stopped a drone incursion at an unspecified “strategic U.S. installation” in the opening hours of Epic Fury. NORTHCOM won’t say which base or identify the equipment. The Barksdale briefing document notes that the drones there resisted jamming. Guillot told senators that stopping drones requires capabilities “across multiple mediums—everything from denying satellite guidance, all the way to first-person-view and everything in between.” He credited Ukraine’s counter-drone experience: “We wouldn’t have known that without Ukraine.”

The U.S. Air Force won’t say how many drones flew over Barksdale, what type they were, what altitude they flew at, what defensive measures the base tried, or whether any were intercepted. Whiteman Air Force Base—home of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber—declined to say whether it had experienced drone incursions at all.

A spokesperson for the 2nd Bomb Wing said flying a drone over a military installation is a federal crime and that Barksdale is working with law enforcement. Senator Cassidy offered what he’d heard in his unclassified briefing: One was a hobbyist; four are unclear. They found a drone but aren’t sure it was one of the ones they’re looking for.

Under current U.S. law, the military can’t shoot down a drone over a domestic installation unless it poses an “imminent threat”—a standard written for adversaries arriving in bombers and missiles, not in backpack-sized packages flying with their lights on. The confidential briefing document—the fullest public account of what happened at Barksdale—is only a public account at all because someone gave it to ABC News.