RISING TERROR THREAT: Intelligence bulletin reveals attack against U.S. electrical grid using drone!
HARRISBURG, PA – An internal government intelligence bulletin released this month reveals a plot against the United States power grid involving the use of a DJI Mavic 2 drone during a 2020 attempted attack on a Pennsylvania power substation.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) published the bulletin on Oct. 28, 2021.
According to the report first obtained by ABC News, the internal FBI memo described the incident when a drone crashed near the unidentified electricity substation on July 16, 2020, as the first known case of a “modified unmanned aircraft system” targeting U.S. infrastructure:
“This is the first known instance of a modified UAS [unmanned aerial system] likely being used in the United States to specifically target energy infrastructure.
“We assess that a UAS recovered near an electrical substation was likely intended to disrupt operations by creating a short circuit to cause damage to transformers or distribution lines, based on the design and recovery location.”
The drone, which crashed atop a building near an unidentified Pennsylvania power substation, was likely intended to disrupt operations by creating a short circuit to damage transformers, according to the memo.
To conceal the device’s identification, the person or group responsible removed the memory card, camera, and all markings. Federal sources told CNN that the intelligence alert is now being sent now to “raise awareness about the event and the wider threat of drones to key infrastructure.”
The bulletin said the drone “appeared to be heavily worn, indicating it was flown previously and was modified for this single flight.” The report said the responsible party made changes to the drone, including applying a copper wire hanging from the bottom of the craft, to create a “short circuit to cause damage to transformers or distribution lines, based on the design and recovery location.”
The method of attack, using the copper wire hanging from the drone in an attempted to cause a short-circuit, can theoretically be a successful method of attack. The Untied States has conducted similar attacks on a much larger scale during the Guld War in 1991.
The U.S. military employed Tomahawk cruise missiles loaded with spools of highly conductive carbon fiber wire against power infrastructure to create blackouts in Iraq during the war.
In another example, F-117 Nighthawk stealth combat jets dropped cluster bombs loaded with BLU-114/B submunitions packed with graphite filament over Serbia to the same effect in 1999.
While counterintelligence officials in the United States have concentrated heavily on cyberattacks against the U.S. power grid, the use of drones poses yet another front in the struggle to safeguard infrastructure.
Marty Edwards, a former senior DHS official who is now vice president of operational technology at security firm Tenable, told CNN:
“All of the attention being paid to cybersecurity right now is important, but we have to remember that physical threats to the grid like this are quite real.”
As drones have become easier to acquire, especially from Chinese companies creating smaller and cheaper versions, the threat to the U.S. should not be ignored. Federal law enforcement warned in the bulletin that critical infrastructure needs to take the threat seriously and should make preparations for the threrat of similar drone attacks in their safety plans:
“We expect illicit (unmanned aircraft system) activity to increase over energy sector and other critical infrastructure facilities as use of these systems in the United States continues to expand.
“To date, no operator has been identified and we are producing this assessment now to expand awareness of this event to federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and security partners who may encounter similarly modified UAS.”
-
Likely Drone Attack On U.S. Power Grid Revealed In New Intelligence Report (Update)
US. officials believe that a DJI Mavic 2, a small quadcopter-type drone, with a thick copper wire attached underneath it via nylon cords was likely at the center of an attempted attack on a power substation in Pennsylvania last year. An internal U.S. government report issued last month says this is the first time such an incident has been officially assessed as a possible drone attack on energy infrastructure in the United States, but that this is likely to become more commonplace as time goes on. This is a reality The War Zone has sounded the alarm about in the past, including when we were first to report on a still-unexplained series of drone flights near the Palo Verde nuclear powerplant in Arizona in 2019.
ABC News was first to report on the Joint Intelligence Bulletin (JIB) covering the incident in Pennsylvania last year, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) published on Oct. 28, 2021. The document, which ABC obtained a copy of — but released only a small portion of — is marked unclassified, but some parts are labeled Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) and For Official Use Only (FOUO). Other outlets have since obtained copies of this document, which reportedly says this likely attack took place on July 16, 2020, but it does not identify where the substation in question was located.
"This is the first known instance of a modified UAS [unmanned aerial system] likely being used in the United States to specifically target energy infrastructure," the JIB states. "We assess that a UAS recovered near an electrical substation was likely intended to disrupt operations by creating a short circuit to cause damage to transformers or distribution lines, based on the design and recovery location."
ABC and other outlets have reported that the JIB says that this assessment is based in part on other unspecified incidents involving drones dating back to 2017. As already noted, The War Zone previously reported on another worrisome set of incidents in 2019 around Arizona's Palo Verde Generating Station, the largest nuclear power plant in the United States in terms of its electrical output. In the process of reporting that story, we uncovered other reported drone flights that prompted security concerns near the Limerick Generating Station nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania earlier that year.
"To date, no operator has been identified and we are producing this assessment now to expand awareness of this event to federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and security partners who may encounter similarly modified UAS," the JIB adds.
Beyond the copper wire strung up underneath it, the drone reportedly had its camera and internal memory card removed. Efforts were taken to remove any identifying markings, indicating efforts by the operator or operators to conceal the identifies and otherwise make it difficult to trace the drone's origins.
It's unclear how much of a threat this particular drone posed in its modified configuration. The apparent intended method of attack would appear to be grounded, at least to some degree, in actual science. The U.S. military employed Tomahawk cruise missiles loaded with spools of highly-conductive carbon fiber wire against power infrastructure to create blackouts in Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991. F-117 Nighthawk stealth combat jets dropped cluster bombs loaded with BLU-114/B submunitions packed with graphite filament over Serbia to the same effect in 1999.
Regardless, the incident only underscores the ever-growing risks that small drones pose to critical infrastructure, as well as other civilian and military targets, in the United States. If this modified drone did pose a real risk, it would also highlight the low barrier to entry to at least attempt to carry out such attacks. New DJI Mavic 2s can be purchased online right now for between $2,000 and $4,000.
The technology is so readily available that non-state actors around the world, from terrorists in the Middle East to drug cartels in Mexico, are already employing commercial quad and hexacopter-type drones armed with improvised explosive payloads on a variety of targets on and off more traditional battlefields. This includes attempted assassinations of high-profile individuals.
The U.S. government is finally coming to terms with these threats and there are certainly some steps being taken, at least at the federal level, to protect domestic civilian and military facilities against small drones. At the same time, it is equally clear there is still much work to be done.
This particular incident in Pennsylvania last year highlights separate security concerns relating to Chinese-made small drones that are now widely available in the United States and are even in use within the U.S. government. DJI, or Da Jiang Innovations, is by far the largest Chinese drone maker selling products commercially in the United States today, and it has been at the center of these debates in recent years.
Whether or not the modified Mavic 2 posed a real danger in this instance or if this was truly the first-ever attempted drone attack on energy infrastructure in the United States, it definitely reflects threats are real now and will only become more dangerous as time goes on.