Cartels fly drones over our southern border. Prisons regularly report drones being used to bring in contraband. Drones interfere with approaches at airports.

All of this is happening now. This isn’t some imagined future threat.

And that’s why I was struck by a passage in the threat section of The Department of War’s Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Quick Reference Guide.

This 89-page publication, written by Joint Interagency Task Force 401 and declassified for open-source publication this past August, compiles information on tactics, techniques, and procedures for countering hostile drone operations. And while it lays out a comprehensive look at how militaries and non-state actors are using (and planning to use) drones, it’s one line that stuck with me:

Small drones could be leveraged by lone actors, criminal organizations, and terrorist organizations to carry out attacks within the homeland.

Small. Hundreds of dollars. Delivered to your front door. That’s the technology that has fundamentally altered the character of war in Ukraine.

The question isn’t if you’ll find yourself one day standing beneath a weaponized drone operated by a criminal or hostile actor. It’s if you’ll know what to do at that moment.

The Threat

The guide breaks down the different types of military drone operations, many of which have civilian analogs. Reconnaissance drones fly over targets and film them, using thermal-imaging technology to see through the night using body heat. Attack drones deliver a bomb or other explosive payload, sometimes via a “one-way attack,” meaning the drone itself is the bomb, crashing into the target. Then there are drone swarms: coordinated groups of drones that communicate with each other in order to act as a unit, according to the guide, which says that typically five to twelve drones comprise a swarm that targets one enemy.

The guide explains what it calls the “classic method” of drone warfare: a reconnaissance drone locates the target and relays its location to the operator of a first-person-view (FPV) drone, who flies it into the target. The FPV drone operator could be as far away as a mile from the action, wearing goggles that allow him to fly the drone via a video feed.

The classic method is cost-effective and can be repeated ad infinitum, and the drone doesn’t care whether its target is wearing a uniform. The whole process can be accomplished by one person using two drones from behind a tree line.

The ease with which drones can be used for reconnaissance and attack marks a major change in warfare. For most of human history, the ability to observe a target from above, and then attack it, was the province of nation-states with air forces. Now anyone with a credit card and some practice can do it.

What Soldiers are Told to Do

SCAN (Situation, Communication, Actions, and Next Steps) is a military drill for survival, but it’s really just four simple habits you can incorporate into your own life:

S: Seek Cover and Concealment
C: Check Low Sky (the 5-meter check, horizon up to about 45 degrees, where a striking drone lives)
A: Announce and Report (transition to the 25-meter check, push a SPOTREP)
N: Now Scan High Sky (the 25-meter check, the deliberate sweep for a loitering reconnaissance platform)

The second instinct to drill in is how to react when spotted by a reconnaissance drone, which could be followed by an attack drone. To make it harder for an attack drone to find a target, the publication offers three pointers:

• Disperse so as not to present a single target for a munition.
• Get into cover and concealment (concealment is especially important against thermal imaging). Overhead cover is the best protection against a drone-delivered explosive, the publication notes.
• Don’t follow predictable routes, and avoid moving in a straight line.

The third, and toughest one to swallow, is reacting to an incoming attack drone. The publication is matter-of-fact about the limited reaction time in this scenario: get into cover. If that’s not possible, get low, which will limit the effects of blast and fragments. Even a wall, a trench or a vehicle interior is better than nothing.

Finally, the publication drills in on observing the sky, adapted from the GWOT-era habit of looking for IEDs in five meters around you, and then out to 25 meters.

The Line Civilians Cannot Cross

The SAFER SKIES Act, signed into law in December 2025 and taking effect this July, authorizes state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement officers to defeat drones under certain circumstances. This authority is limited to law enforcement officers employed by agencies that have passed certification through the FBI’s law enforcement training center, and it will sunset at the end of 2031 unless renewed by Congress.

Despite popular misconceptions spread online, private citizens, contractors, and even private security personnel do not have the right to take down a drone, nor may they interfere with or attempt to control the drone using spoofing or jamming devices.

Taking down drones is illegal under current federal law, which classifies drones as aircraft. Destroying or damaging a drone can lead to criminal charges under 18 U.S.C. 32, which carries penalties for sabotage of aircraft. Jamming is also prohibited under federal law, with no provision for use by private parties.

When it comes to countermeasures aimed at drones themselves, unfortunately, you’re powerless to take any legal action.

Your best course of action is to be a good witness and report it to those that are empowered to take action.

Where you do have options is observation and reporting. Radio-frequency receivers that pick up drone control signals are legal for civilians to possess, as are thermal imaging devices. Also, modern drones are required to broadcast their location and identity on a signal called Remote ID. There are smartphone apps that can pick up these signals, so just search your app store for “drone remote ID scanner.”

Becoming the Witness

The guide was written with reporting to a radio net in mind, but the format would work well enough for a 911 call: location, direction and approximate distance, number of drones, quadcopter or fixed wing, color, lights and lighting pattern, whether or not something is slung underneath, and what it’s doing. A drone loitering over a crowd is not the same thing as one transiting overhead. That kind of detail is the difference between a shrug and a report an officer can act on.

And patterns. If the same drone keeps working your neighborhood at the same time of day, or circles the same building twice in a week, photograph it, keep track of it. One drone is a curiosity. A schedule is intelligence.

Speaking of defeat authority, the guide also recommends that if a drone does crash land in your presence, you not approach it. It may still be transmitting, and it may have a payload that hasn’t gone off. Keep people away, take photos from afar, and leave it to those with training. Whether you’re in a war zone or in the parking lot of a grocery store.

The Uncomfortable Part

During my years as a Cavalry Scout, my job was to see and not be seen. Drones upend that idea. The thing that sees you can also be the thing that kills you, all from a mile away for the cost of a used laptop. The military’s answer is billions of dollars in radar towers and interceptor missiles. We can’t do that.

What we can do is what soldiers did before there was hardware, pay attention, take cover, move even when our instincts tell us to freeze.

Drones haven’t given us a new problem, we’ve always been aware that other people can observe us, follow us, and possibly try to do us harm. They’ve just made it easier. Cheaper. Available to folks that could never previously get to us.

Think about drones the same way you think about any other hazard, flat tire, house fire, etc. What’s your plan? Who do you call? What do you say?

The guide ends by reminding readers that they must stay on top of a constantly changing drone threat in order to remain effective against it. This tip isn’t just for soldiers. It’s the one piece of advice in the guide that anyone can follow, effective immediately.

References

Joint Interagency Task Force 401, Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Quick Reference Guide, Version 4 (2026), cleared for open publication Aug 27, 2026.

SAFER SKIES Act, explained (Arcline Systems). https://arclinesystems.ai/resources/safer-skies-act-explained

Counter-UAS Authority for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Law Enforcement and Correctional Agencies (Federal Register, July 6, 2026). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/06/2026-13609/counter-uas-authority-for-state-local-tribal-and-territorial-law-enforcement-and-correctional

U.S. Issues Rule on How Local Law Enforcement Can Take Down Drones (ASIS, Security Management). https://www.asisonline.org/security-management-magazine/latest-news/today-in-security/2026/july/US-Issues-Rule-On-Local-Law-Enforcement-CUAS/

18 U.S.C. 32, Destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/32

FAA Remote Identification of Drones. https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/remote_id

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