What happens when a swarm of fast, high-performance drones attack the White House or any other government establishment? Will our defense systems be able to stop armed drones? In fact, security warnings from Dan Bongino a former NYPD officer who is currently running for Congress as a Republican and also the author of a new book on the Secret Service, warns that drones can be used by terrorists to wage an attack.

The Secret Service must get ready for the possible threat of a swarm of weaponized drones that could attack President Donald Trump, says Bongino. He warns that the threat is grave and called for a seismic change of thinking at the agency. Bongino said terrorists are waiting eagerly to unleash an attack on the United States.

He explained that the agency must evolve so that they can effectively respond to new technologies like 3-D printed plastic guns and increasingly innovative explosive devices. According to Bongino, drones are a top consideration for terrorists and have been for a long time. The real threat, however, comes from the more spectacular swarm attacks.

This type of attack will include modern-day armed drones delivered in “swarms”. The problem, Bongino noted, is that the agencies and Uniformed Divisions are not properly trained for such an air attacks.

Distractions from the sky, whether drones or planes, can cause additional security complications because of this lack of training. Secret Service agents cannot fly, so new methods must be devised to protect the President. He also raised some concerns about computer-generated guns that could easily be carried through traditional magnetometers and the abundance of online terrorist training courses that describe in detail how to commit these types of attacks.

Bongino noted that a suicide attack will require extensive planning by terrorists, giving the agencies less time to detect an oncoming assault. It is even possible that tactical attacks are being planned right now.

Terrorists in search of media attention for their heinous acts have long known that a successful strike against the President of the United States is the ultimate target, he wrote in his book. These warnings are intended to change how the US addresses threats to its top leaders, including all activities— from rewriting counter-terror plans to simple security measures like replacing the White House fences— that can help detect assaults at every stage.

The US can no longer afford to stick to dated counter-security measures especially in defense against threat of a coordinated, attack on the White House. Counter-terror is evolving and so must the methods employed to fight it.

The U.S. Navy is a leader in the area of swarm hostilities. Several studies and analysis have been carried out in a number of papers at the Naval Postgraduate School. Most of these studies are classified, but a 2012 paper titled “UAV Swarm Attack” makes for some really uncomfortable reading.  The study highlighted the weakness of our current defense systems against swarms of drones. However, there is some more research at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, that looks into defensive swarms to take out the attackers.

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