• Drone sightings across the US have captivated many Americans and sparked widespread speculation.
• The sightings have also put a spotlight on airspace management strategies in the US.
• Experts say the focus should be on improved regulation and countermeasures instead of hysteria.

A recent wave of mysterious drone sightings across the US has, to a certain extent, kick-started a long-overdue discussion on drone technology and airspace management.

These drone sightings have captured national attention, and the public is now paying more attention to drone activity near US military bases. Federal agencies are talking to the public about drone issues. And there's more public discussion of congressional legislation to boost federal authority as the government says it's hamstrung in its ability to respond to drone threats.

"There's a fundamental notion that drones present a very, very new expanded type of threat," Doug Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Business Insider, noting that the US largely lacks "the tactics and the procedures to deal with this."

Birkey said many people are "overplaying" the mystery behind the latest drone sightings. But the resulting buzz is driving conversations about counterstrategies and systems that "should have happened a long time ago."

Officials from the White House, FBI, DHS, DoD, and the FAA have urged Congress to "enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes that would help extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge." This has been a recurring topic in press briefings in recent weeks.

"The good news is that technology largely exists" to address the challenges presented by drone tech, Birkey said. "We just have to get serious about going after it and then having the procedures down to be smart about it."

The latest drone drama

In mid-November, unidentified aircraft were first seen flying over New Jersey. They drew national attention as reported sightings extended to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, among other states, this month.

It wasn't until worry and wild speculation about the drones reached a fever pitch that agencies began a more organized effort to communicate. In the initial absence, others filled the void with conspiracy theories, a major one being that the drones were launched from an Iranian drone mothership off the US East Coast.

The federal government has shot many of these assertions down, saying they're not of foreign origin and not a threat.

The White House, FBI, Homeland Security, Pentagon, and FAA have said that all the evidence available indicates the drone sightings are a mixture of "lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones."

Though not nefarious, US officials said they "recognize the concern among many communities" and the "irresponsible" nature of the drone activity near restricted airspace and infrastructure, including military bases and civilian airports.

Things have "sort of moved to a point of hysteria," said Stacie Pettyjohn, the director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security. She said that "the public has gotten really agitated because of the perceived novelty of drones or the danger associated with them."

She said "people seeing drones everywhere" are "starting to conflate just normal air traffic and anything in the sky and assuming that something nefarious or strange is happening."

But even as the government has attempted to quell concerns, skepticism remains, leading some to push for greater clarity on this issue so that drones can be discussed rationally.

William Austin, a drone expert and president of Warren County Community College, said the federal government needs to be clear with the public in this situation.

He wrote in a recent op-ed that "the public needs clear, authoritative communication: there is no credible evidence of large drones operating over New Jersey,"

Austin argued in his article that "the drone industry has too much to offer — cutting-edge technology, job creation, and life-saving applications — to be derailed by myths." He said, "We need facts, not speculation."

Drones are becoming prolific

Surging interest and investment in new drone tech have catalyzed rapid advancements, transforming the technology at an unprecedented pace in recent years.

Increasing competition in the global market is making drones more accessible, affordable, and user-friendly, expanding their use beyond traditional military and defense applications to sectors like agriculture, logistics, and recreation.

"It's part of the changing technological landscape that extends beyond just the military," Pettyjohn said. "It's not just the realm of the government anymore to have really sophisticated capabilities. It's just part of everyday society."

Commercial and civilian drones only began to emerge in the early 2000s, leaving the general public largely unaccustomed to encountering them in their daily lives.

The high-profile Chinese spy balloon incident last year that ended with it being shot down by a US fighter jet spotlighted aerial surveillance as a potential threat to public safety and national security. Terrorist and insurgent operations, as well as the widespread use of drone warfare in Ukraine, have also heightened fears regarding their possible weaponization.

And there are real risks, regardless of whether drone activity is malicious. As drone technology proliferates further, activities around military bases and airfields are becoming a "huge problem" for the US, Mark Cancian, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired US Marine Corps colonel, recently told BI.

A US military base in Ohio briefly closed its airspace after small drones were spotted in the area, and the runways at a New York airport were also briefly shut down due to nearby drone activity.

Sociologist and New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci wrote that the hysteria and drama of the recent drone situation aside, "unauthorized drones are a problem, and there does need to be better regulation and technology to deal with them. Let's hear about that, then, rather than this mindless dangerous panic."

• Israel launched widespread strikes on Syria to wipe out the remnants of the Assad regime's military.
• The strikes targeted Syrian weapon stockpiles after a rebel offensive ousted President Bashar Assad.
• Israeli warplanes and missile ships destroyed Syrian aircraft, naval ships, and weapon depots.

The Israel Defense Forces launched widespread strikes across Syria over the past two days to wipe out what remained of the Assad regime's military arsenal.

The Israeli Air Force carried out about 480 strikes targeting most of the country's strategic weapon stockpiles left behind after rebels forced Syrian leader Bashar Assad to flee the country.

About 350 of the strikes were crewed aircraft targeting Syrian military assets, including aircraft, ammunition depots, storage facilities, and missile and radar systems. The Israeli Navy also destroyed several military vessels docked at two Syrian naval ports. The Israeli army seized strategic positions in the Golan Heights abandoned by Syrian troops.

Israeli officials said the extensive strikes on Syria were intended to prevent the Assad government's military infrastructure and weapons from being used by extremists and potential foes. Israel is exploiting the Assad regime's fall to enhance its security in the long term as it uses blistering force to cripple Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The fall of Assad

After a decadeslong dictatorship, rebel forces seized control of the Syrian capital of Damascus over the weekend, forcing Assad to relinquish power and flee the country.

"We declare Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad," Hassan Abdul-Ghani, commander of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, wrote in a post on social media. "To the displaced people around the world, free Syria awaits you."

Former Syrian prime minister Ghazi al-Jalali remained in the country after the collapse of the Assad regime, saying the government is willing to cooperate and support "any leadership chosen by the Syrian people."

Creating a 'sterile defense zone'

While Israel supported ousting Assad, a staunch ally of Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the situation in Syria is still "fraught with significant dangers" from the extremists now governing the country.

In the days after the dayslong rebel offensive ousted the Syrian dictator, Israel launched hundreds of strikes targeting Syrian military assets over 48 hours to prevent them "from falling into the hands of terrorist elements." HTS publicly split with the Al Qaeda affiliate from which it formed, but US officials believe it may still have links to Al Qaeda leaders.

"We have no intention of interfering in Syria's internal affairs, but we clearly intend to do what is necessary to ensure our security," Netanyahu said.

"I authorized the air force to bomb strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian army so that they would not fall into the hands of the jihadists," he said, adding that Israel "would like to form relations with the new regime in Syria."

The IDF said the strikes were part of a larger-scale mission known as Operation Bashan Arrow, intended to create a "sterile defense zone" by neutralizing potential threats from the neighboring country.

Sinking Syrian warships

Israeli forces attacked key Syrian naval facilities in the port cities of Al-Bayda and Latakia late Tuesday, where more than a dozen Syrian naval vessels were docked.

Photos of the decimated port showed half-submerged Syrian warships. Some of the damaged vessels were Osa-class missile boats, Soviet-era vessels whose 30mm turrets and mounted missile launchers could be seen in the wreckage.

The Syrian navy, the smallest branch of the country's armed forces, operated over a dozen of the high-speed — albeit outdated — vessels developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz said Israeli Navy missile ships "destroyed Syria's navy overnight and with great success." It's not clear how many Syrian vessels were destroyed by Israeli warships in the overnight attack.

Satellite images of Latakia, a former stronghold of Assad, showed the charred wreckage of the naval ships. The IDF wrote in a post on X that "dozens of sea-to-sea missiles" with "significant explosive payloads" were also destroyed.

Destroying Syrian military aircraft

The IAF carried out an airstrike on the Mezzeh Air Base in Damascus, once a key stronghold of the Assad regime's air force.

At least three major Syrian army air bases were attacked by Israeli warplanes, damaging dozens of helicopters and fighter jets, The Times of Israel reported. Locals living near the bases said they heard several explosions after the Israeli strikes appeared to ignite the ammunition stored there, the Associated Press reported.

Dismantling Syrian military infrastructure

In addition to decimating Syria's aerial and naval fleet, the IDF said it carried out strikes on 130 military assets, such as firing positions, antiaircraft batteries, missile and radar systems, and weapons production sites.

Crippling Syria's chemical weapons infrastructure

Israeli forces also destroyed the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center in Damascus, a key facility thought to be testing and operating the country's covert chemical and biological weapons programs under the Assad regime.

The Barzeh facility was previously bombarded in 2018 by US, UK, and French forces in response to a poison sarin gas attack in Douma, Syria. The US found Assad's government responsible for the April 2018 chemical warfare attack that killed at least 40 people and injured over 100.

However, the head of the center's polymers department told Reuters at the time that the facility, now reduced to rubble, was used to research medicinal components that couldn't be imported, such as anti-venom and cancer treatments.

'Changing the face of the Middle East'

The fall of the Syrian regime weakens Iran's regional influence and could pose logistical and strategic challenges to Iran's regional proxies like the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of the severe blows with which we have struck Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran," Netanyahu said during a Monday press conference. "The axis has not yet disappeared, but as I promised — we are changing the face of the Middle East."

Despite the widespread strikes across Syria, Israeli military officials said the country's armed forces were operating beyond the Israeli-occupied demilitarized buffer zone in Golan Heights but not toward the Syrian capital.

"IDF forces are not advancing towards Damascus. This is not something we are doing or pursuing in any way," IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said at a briefing. "We are not involved in what's happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict, and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens."

Katz, Israel's defense minister, said the country was advancing beyond Golan Heights to impose a "security zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terrorist infrastructures" in southern Syria.

"With regard to what will be in the future, I'm not a prophet," Katz said. "It is important right now to take all necessary steps in the context of the security of Israel."

• The Sea Vampire made history as the first jet-powered aircraft to land on a carrier in 1945.
• The UK and US navies developed fighter jets to operate aboard aircraft carriers after World War II.
• The de Havilland Vampire was adapted for naval use, becoming the aptly named Sea Vampire.

When the British experimental jet fighter touched down on the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ocean nearly eight decades ago, it wasn't just a historic landing — it was a giant leap in naval aviation.

Aircraft carriers carrying propeller planes proved to be one of the most valuable sea-based assets in World War II. After the war ended, the two largest navies at the time — the UK Royal Navy and the US Navy — fast-tracked carrier testing for the jets revolutionizing air forces.

Some land-based fighter jets were redesigned to achieve that purpose — for the Royal Navy, it was the de Havilland Vampire, the second jet-powered aircraft to be produced and flown by Britain.

The Royal Navy modified the Vampire to make the aircraft's design more fitted for sea trials, aptly naming the naval variant the de Havilland Sea Vampire.

On December 3, 1945, the Sea Vampire successfully landed and took off from the flight deck of the HMS Ocean, becoming the first jet aircraft in history to do so, greatly expanding the combat range and speed of the carrier squadrons.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier

The Royal Navy Colossus-class aircraft carrier HMS Ocean was commissioned just months before it was a part of the historic carrier landing.

Shortly after commissioning in August 1945 — the same month Japan surrendered after the US dropped two nuclear bombs — the ship was upgraded to conduct night fighter operations, equipped with improved radar and direction-finding equipment.

The light fleet carrier's flight deck measured nearly 700 feet and accommodated more than three dozen aircraft. The Ocean was armed with close-in antiaircraft weaponry, including a Bofors 40 mm gun and a two-pounded naval gun known as the "pom-pom" due to the sound it makes when firing.

A renowned test pilot

The landmark landing could only be carried out by an aviator of equal renown. Capt. Eric "Winkle" Brown was the chief naval test pilot for the Royal Aircraft Establishment, the UK's leading flight research facility at the time.

As a highly experienced test pilot, Brown already had a number of broken records under his belt — he was the first to land a twin-engine aircraft on a carrier, the first to land a tricycle gear aircraft on a carrier, and the first to land a rotary-wing aircraft on a ship at sea.

The first take-off and landing on a carrier

The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm developed three prototypes as part of their efforts to create a fighter jet that could operate aboard carriers, as well as new deck-landing techniques.

The flight trials for the Sea Vampire prototype took place off the south coast of England. The Sea Vampire trial planned to have the aircraft land on the Ocean's flight deck at 95 mph, though strong gusts caused the plane to land faster than anticipated.

Due to the aircraft's tail-down angle and the pitching of the carrier's flight deck, the plane's trailing edge wing flaps hit the deck, breaking their hinges upon landing.

Brown, however, was determined to pull off a perfect landing. He made several more takeoffs and landings on the Ocean, accomplishing the feat on the fourth try despite the initial damage to the Sea Vampire.

Carrier landings were considered some of the most challenging maneuvers at the time, so demonstrating that higher-speed fighter jets could safely land marked a turning point in naval aviation. The first successful jet-powered carrier landing catalyzed the innovation of carrier technology and design to better accommodate jet aircraft, including angled flight decks, steam-powered aircraft catapults, and more advanced arresting gear.

The advancements ushered in a new era, expanding and enhancing the capabilities of both the flattops and the aircraft they carried. Jet engines have greater thrust than propellers, allowing aircraft to fly much faster and at higher altitudes. These changes led to a strategic shift in naval warfare with a greater focus on air superiority at sea.

"The only thing we can say is, we took the bull by the horns, accepting the limitations in engine performance, to show jet propulsion was conceivable for naval operations," Brown said in a 2015 interview published in the British aviation magazine Aeroplane Monthly.

Vampire variants

Following the successful fight landing and take-off, the FAA ultimately decided to use the Sea Vampire as a more cost-effective training aircraft rather than a first-line fighter.

In 1947, the mass-produced version of the Sea Vampire featured the model's larger flaps and airbrakes and a modified arresting hook. The Navy ordered 30 Sea Vampires, but only 18 were actually delivered to the Royal Navy.

A few years after the 1945 carrier landing, the Sea Vampire went on to test the feasibility of landing a jet with wheels retracted on a flexible 150-foot "carpet" atop a carrier deck.

While the tests aboard the light carrier HMS Warrior were ultimately successful, wheelless aircraft couldn't land on conventional airfields or runways without the shock-absorbing "carpet," making the innovation more trouble than it was worth.

After pilots reported issues with the Sea Vampire's slow takeoff without a catapult, the training jets were pulled in the late 1950s and scrapped by 1960.

Which came first?

While Brown's landing and takeoff on the HMS Ocean is remembered as the first jet-powered aircraft carrier landing, some argue that the US Navy accomplished the feat a month earlier.

On November 6, 1945, US Navy Ensign J.A. West landed a Ryan FR-1 Fireball fighter jet, the Navy's first jet-engine fighter aircraft, on the deck of the escort carrier USS Wake Island using jet power after the plane's main piston engine malfunctioned.

The Fireball was a mixed-propulsion aircraft, meaning it was powered by both a piston and jet engine. Standard takeoffs and landings from carrier decks at the time were typically powered by the aircraft's piston engines because early jet engines alone were not powerful or reliable enough for sustained flight.

While West was approaching the carrier deck, the American-made jet's main piston engine failed, causing the plane's propeller to spin out of control. In a last-ditch effort to safely land the Fireball, West switched to the Fireball's turbojet engine and successfully landed on USS Wake Island using jet power alone.

Although West's landing was ultimately successful — albeit unintentional — the credit for the first jet-powered carrier landing is more often given to Brown's pure-jet Sea Vampire, as the Fireball was a hybrid aircraft.

• The US Navy is converting Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers into hypersonic missile shooters.
• The expensive Zumwalt class has struggled to find a suitable mission and weapons.
• The upgrade is part of the US' effort to keep pace with adversaries in fielding hypersonic weapons.

The US Navy's Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers are hailed as a revolution in naval warfare due to their next-generation design and advanced technology.

But nearly two decades after the first-in-class USS Zumwalt began construction, the world's most advanced surface combatants are still not ready for combat, victims of development problems, cost overruns, and ineffective systems.

Now, the sea service is retrofitting the Zumwalt-class destroyers to launch future hypersonic missiles in a bid to make the costly warships more useful by allowing them to strike targets from afar with greater precision.

The Zumwalt has been docked at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, since August 2023 to integrate the new and untested weapon system.

The ship is expected to be undocked this week as it prepares for tests and a return to the fleet, according to a shipyard spokeswoman, though the Navy said it wants to begin testing the ship's new hypersonic weapon system in 2027 or 2028.

The world's largest, most advanced destroyer

The Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers are considered the most advanced surface warships in the world, equipped with innovative naval technology.

Named after Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., the youngest chief of naval operations in US history, the lead ship USS Zumwalt is the largest destroyer in the world at 610 feet long. It can house a crew of nearly 200 sailors and accommodate one MH-60R Seahawk helicopter in its hangar.

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries were behind the design and construction of the three stealth destroyers.

The warships feature an all-electric propulsion system and a composite deckhouse covered with radar-absorbing material to hide their sensors and communication systems. But the US Navy has struggled to arm them.

Due to the ship's manufacturing issues and soaring costs, the Navy reduced the Zumwalt class's overall size from 32 ships to just three: the Zumwalt, USS Michael Monsoor, and the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson, which is expected to commission after its combat systems are fully installed and activated.

The first shipborne hypersonic weapon

The stealth destroyers were armed with two 155 mm deck guns for shore bombardment, but ballooning manufacturing costs made the ammunition for the guns ridiculously expensive.

The Navy halted the ammo procurement in 2016, the same year the Zumwalt was commissioned, and publicly announced in 2018 that it was scrapping the now-useless main deck guns for a new weapon system.

In 2021, then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said the stealth destroyers would be the first Navy warships to be armed with hypersonic missiles instead of its Block V Virginia-class submarines, saying that it would be an "important move" toward turning the surface ships into strike platforms.

The Navy said the first-in-class stealth destroyer's "upgrades will ensure Zumwalt remains one of the most technologically advanced and lethal ships in the US Navy."

Photos showed the Zumwalt's main deck gun mounts were removed. The cannons will be replaced with four all-up round canisters containing three hypersonic missiles each. These come in addition to its conventional missile arsenal of 80 vertical launch cells.

US efforts in hypersonic innovation

The US military is working on hypersonic weapons across all branches. The Zumwalts will be armed with the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system, the Navy's joint hypersonic weapons program with the Army and US Strategic Command.

Described by STRATCOM as "a strong deterrence message to our adversaries," the "highly lethal platform" would launch like a ballistic missile but instead uses a two-stage solid-fueled rocket booster to get the projectile to travel at speeds faster than Mach 5 speed — nearly 4,000 mph. The booster allows the missile to change trajectory at these speeds, unlike a ballistic missile, and combined with its lower altitude flight complicates efforts to intercept it.

The weapon system features an all-up round (AUR) missile and a separate payload modular adapter, which the Navy is testing along with the missile and eject system.

"It's not like any other type of missile," Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, the Navy's director of strategic programs, told reporters at the Naval Submarine League's annual symposium last month. "You don't light this thing off inside."

The CPS system failed its first test in June 2022, as well as subsequent flight tests in March and September 2023. The first successful test was completed this summer.

"The testing that we need to do to get to the final integration of Zumwalt, that's irrespective of where the Zumwalt's at, whether it's in the water," Wolfe added.

In addition to the CPS system, the Navy is also developing a hypersonic air-launched anti-ship missile expected to be compatible with the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet. However, few details about the $178.6 million program have been released to the public.

Scrapping the Zumwalts' twin turrets

Developed to provide off-shore precision fire support from a distance, the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers were armed with a pair of Advanced Gun System (AGS) mounts to fire naval artillery from up to 100 nautical miles away — in what would've been the US Navy's longest-range shell in use.

However, after the Navy reduced the size of its Zumwalt fleet, manufacturing costs for the Long-Range Land-Attack Projectile-guided shells skyrocketed to about $800,000 to $1 million per round — about the same price as a cruise missile.

The rocket-assisted projectiles also fell short of the intended range, prompting the sea service to cancel production of the munitions, rendering the pair of high-velocity cannons useless.

Before announcing the new hypersonic weapon, the Navy floated other weapon systems to replace the failed gun mounts, including an electromagnetic railgun or futuristic laser weapons.

The hypersonic edge

In recent years, US adversaries like Russia and China have been developing hypersonic weapons, adding pressure on the Pentagon to prioritize its own hypersonic development efforts.

China has "the world's leading hypersonic arsenal," and Russia has already deployed two of its three hypersonic weapon systems in Ukraine, according to congressional testimony from Jeffrey McCormick, senior intelligence analyst at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.

The US, however, has yet to field a single hypersonic weapon amid ongoing development and integration challenges across the military, including the Zumwalt-class artillery upgrade.

'Is it really worth the money?'

Research and development for the destroyer cost about $22.4 billion, and General Dynamics spent another $40 million just to construct a shipyard facility large enough to accommodate the giant hull segments.

Each ship cost an average of $7.5 billion — more expensive than the Navy's Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.

Even with all of their costly innovations, the Zumwalt-class vessels continued to be plagued by equipment problems and constantly needed repairs.

Last year, the Navy awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries with a $154.8 million contract to integrate the hypersonic weapon system aboard USS Zumwalt. The Congressional Budget Office also estimated that it would cost nearly $18 billion to buy and maintain 300 of the hypersonic boost-glide missiles for the next 20 years.

As the expenses of fielding US-developed hypersonic weapons pile up, some military analysts say the costs outweigh the benefits.

"This particular missile costs more than a dozen tanks," Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the DC-based think tank Lexington Institute, told the Associated Press. "All it gets you is a precise non-nuclear explosion, someplace far, far away."

"Is it really worth the money?" Thompson continued. "The answer is, most of the time, the missile costs much more than any target you can destroy with it."

A steep price to pay to keep pace

While conventional missiles may cost less, long-range hypersonic weapons increase the chances of striking the targets of adversaries protected by advanced air defense systems like those of China and Russia.

"The adversary has them," retired Navy Rear Adm. Ray Spicer, CEO of the US Naval Institute, told the AP. "We never want to be outdone."

Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, told the AP that while the US stealth destroyers were "a costly blunder," the Navy could "take victory from the jaws of defeat here and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform."

The jury is still out on whether the Zumwalt hypersonic upgrades are worth the hefty price tag, but it would at the very least give the stealth destroyers a purpose.

"Zumwalt gave us an opportunity to get [hypersonics] out faster," Gilday told USNI News in 2022," and to be honest with you, I need a solid mission for Zumwalt."

• Trumpworld is apparently reconsidering Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon amid growing scrutiny.
• The Fox News host has faced allegations of misconduct, but he is fighting them.
• There are several prominent contenders the president-elect could still tap as defense secretary.

An Army veteran in the Senate. A former Pentagon official who's a leading China hawk. A former top rival for the GOP presidential nomination.

Those are some of the options President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are reportedly considering for defense secretary as allegations and character concerns cloud his unconventional pick to lead the Pentagon.

Trump is said to have been surprised by allegations that have emerged about his pick, Pete Hegseth. The former Fox News host and Trump confidant has faced accusations of sexual assault, financial mismanagement at the veteran's advocacy group he led, excessive alcohol use, and belittling behavior toward women.

The allegations have complicated the Army veteran's chances at confirmation even in a GOP-controlled Senate.

Hegseth has said the sexual encounter, which happened in 2017, was consensual. He was not charged with a crime in relation to the incident. He has slammed media coverage of the allegations as "fake" and "BS" and has said he will not "back down." In an op-ed published Wednesday, he said the growing scrutiny was a "textbook manufactured media takedown."

In the piece, which was shared by the Trump transition team, Hegseth wrote that he is looking "forward to an honest confirmation hearing, not a press show trial based on anonymous accusations."

Hegseth met with lawmakers at the Capitol this week to discuss plans for the defense department, address the mounting misconduct allegations against him, and shore up congressional support, even by promising not to drink alcohol if they'll confirm him.

GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his meeting with the embattled defense secretary-designate went well, adding that Hegseth laid out "a big vision for how to fix the problems" at the department, CNN reported. He didn't say whether he would support Hegseth's nomination, though.

Other Republican senators offered mixed reactions, ranging from continued uncertainty to full-fledged support. But even if the political winds shift in Hegseth's favor, many reports have said that Trump is already considering other potential nominees.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news the president-elect was considering replacing Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Other names that various sources within Trump world have floated include former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.

"This country's full of talented people," Kori Schake, director of Foreign and Defense Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, told Business Insider. "The Secretary's main job is dealing with Congress, since they control most of defense policy. So generally someone who's had legislative experience is a huge advantage."

The names being floated would potentially be politically safer choices with much more experience in government. Their experience and stature could make them more independent of an incoming White House that prizes loyalty, however.

It remains to be seen whether Trump will drop Hegseth, who is showing no intention at the moment to withdraw as the nominee on his own. Hegseth said Thursday he met with Trump and that he "fully supports" him, but ABC News reports the president-elect isn't working the phones to try to save him like he did Matt Gaetz.

Meanwhile, back-up options wait in the wings.

Former political rival Gov. Ron DeSantis

Citing sources familiar with the decision-making, NBC News reported that Gov. Ron DeSantis is "very much in contention" to lead Trump's Department of Defense should Hegseth drop out of the running.

DeSantis was Trump's primary rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, earning insulting nicknames from Trump that included "Ron DeSanctimonious," "Ron DeSanctus," and "Meatball Ron." The president-elect said that he "officially retired" the nicknames after DeSantis dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump ahead of the New Hampshire primary in January.

When he was still on the campaign trail, DeSantis leaned into his military background, which was seen as a key differentiator.

The Florida governor highlighted his US military service as a judge advocate general in the US Navy during the first GOP presidential primary debate, and he emphasized being deployed "alongside" Navy SEALs in Iraq and stationed at the controversial Guantánamo Bay detention facility in campaign speeches and ads.

However, much about DeSantis' active-duty career in the Navy remains a mystery to the public.

The Navy redacted certain details in records of DeSantis' military duties, saying that the "release of such information would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of Ronald D. DeSantis and other identified individuals" in response to a federal public records request.

Among the potential replacements for Hegseth, DeSantis appears to have emerged as a frontrunner. Some Democratic senators have expressed more openness to DeSantis as defense secretary than they have for Trump's current pick.

Congresisonal Army veteran Sen. Joni Ernst

Serving in the Iowa Army National Guard for over two decades, GOP Sen. Joni Ernst is a longtime Trump ally. She has said she was sexually harassed while in uniform.

Ernst, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, was previously under consideration as defense secretary before the president-elect tapped Hegseth. If Trump were to revisit her as a nominee and if she were to be confirmed, she would be the first woman to lead the Pentagon.

Calling herself the "top watchDOGE," the Iowa Republican was named to spearhead the Senate's partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump's new initiative to cut federal spending and government waste.

Seen as a potential swing vote in Hegseth's confirmation, Ernst met with him at the Capitol on Wednesday, saying that they were "just going to have a really frank and thorough conversation" regarding his vision for the DoD and the emerging misconduct allegations against him.

In a post on X, she wrote: "I appreciate Pete Hegseth's service to our country, something we both share." She didn't go into detail on how she might vote, though.

China hawk Elbridge Colby

Elbridge Colby, a former senior Pentagon official, is another potential replacement for Hegseth, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, among others, reported on Thursday.

He has, however, shown his support for Hegseth in posts online, saying that the current pick "knows the costs of war" and is committed to Trump's "vital vision of peace through strength and putting Americans first."

Colby served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development during the first Trump administration. He also helped shape the department's National Defense Strategy, which was published in early 2018.

Like Trump's pick for secretary of state, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, Colby is hawkish on China and has consistently emphasized the need for the US to focus its efforts on countering that threat, particularly China's growing, increasingly modernized military.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Colby praised Trump, saying that the incoming commander-in-chief "hasn't even taken office yet, and he's already putting America on a path toward a much better foreign policy. Foreign countries can see the strength and clarity he projects and they are adapting already."

• Rapid advances have turned drones into aerial spies and flying bombs.
• They pose increasing risks to governments, companies, and public utilities.
• Defense companies like MARSS and Dedrone sell systems designed to defeat drones.

Attack drones are evolving so rapidly in the cauldrons of combat in the Middle East and Ukraine that militaries and even law enforcement agencies see a pressing need for defenses.

Companies are rushing to meet these needs even as unmanned aerial vehicles continue to change rapidly to exploit vulnerabilities.

"That's essentially been what we've been trying to do over the last decade — play catch up — and the UAV threats have always been able to stay one step ahead of the counter-[unmanned aerial systems] systems as we're developing them," said Jamey D. Jacob, a mechanical engineer who is director of Oklahoma State University's Unmanned Systems Research Institute.

This demand for defenses is a booming area where start-ups and newer companies compete with the largest defense contractors to build the sensors and weapons to defeat drones and the AI-assisted networks that integrate them into a clear picture for a human operator.

The typical ways to counter drones can be broken into four steps: detect, track, identify, and mitigate threats. Sensors like radars and cameras are essential to the first three tasks. The final step to stop the threat can be accomplished via frequency jamming and electronic warfare (soft-kill) or by physically damaging it (hard-kill).

One company specializing in creating the battlefield awareness systems to spot and defeat drones is MARSS, a global defense technology company.

MARSS' technology is designed to detect, analyze, and annotate the heaps of data collected by its integrated systems and present it in a way "that the drone operator could understand it extremely easily," said Josh Harman, Vice President of Business Development at MARSS Group.

"What was happening when the drone threat started to continually evolve and get more complicated, you had to turn drone sensor solutions into a layered defense solution," he added.

The defense tech company focuses on developing counter-drone platforms that detect threats for civilian, government, and military clientele.

Earlier this year, MARSS showcased its AI-driven NiDAR counter-drone system at the Red Sands military drills in Saudi Arabia, jointly run by Saudi armed forces and the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.

"Over the course of the Red Sands exercise, MARSS demonstrated multi-sensor integration on a single UI that was mature and devastatingly effective against the various air threats — reducing the decision cycle of 'detect to defeat' to a matter of seconds," Harman told UASWeekly at the time.

'Golden age of aviation'

Drone defenses are difficult and iterative simply because they are counters to technology that's leaping ahead.

The flexibility and cost-effectiveness of UAVs has ushered in a "new golden age of aviation where you can come up with really neat ideas that you weren't able to develop a decade ago," said Jacob, the UAV expert at OSU.

"What we see in the drone industry is really flipping this conventional aircraft design cycle on its head, which is really what allows new companies to compete because they could be much more nimble and don't have to have the big development budgets that are necessary for the development of full-scale manned aircraft," Jacob told Business Insider in an interview.

The drone makers and pilots are devising ways to dominate the battlefield while drone defenders try to figure out how to neutralize them in a game of spy-vs-spy that has implications far beyond the battlefield. Drone defenses range from radiofrequency detectors to jammers and guns. MARSS sees an opportunity to network them together into an integrated, operator-controlled network.

"Most companies in the market were building specific sensors, whether it be radars, radio frequency, directed energy, kinetic energy, kinetic guns, missiles, or whatever it may be," said MARSS's Harman. "Essentially, you had a lot of different systems out there working independently, not in sync, and you had a low success rate across not only all the US services but also the international services as well."

Another defense company has developed its drone shields from combat use in Ukraine.

Virginia-based drone company Dedrone by Axon has integrated artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions into its open-architecture counter-drone platforms.

"When you think about our use across the world — both on the public safety side, but especially on the national security side — by virtue of being in situ, not only does our AI-ML machine get smarter every day, but we are also able to benefit and improve our system at that same pace that the drones are evolving in the conflict zones," said Mary-Lou Smulders, CMO and head of government affairs at Dedrone.

Dedrone allows a buyer, such as an airport authority or electrical power plant, to set up a network of sensors and jammers and have AI guide the user to quickly identify and respond to threats it detects.

MARSS also says its counter-drone networks are enhanced by supervised machine learning and AI skillset to alert the user sooner.

"It's a big, big deal when you can extend the range on detection, you give the operator a lot more time to act accordingly and to lower any mistakes," Harman said. "When you can eliminate a large portion of all the false positives, you allow the operators to focus on what they need to focus on."

• USS Beloit, the US Navy's new littoral combat ship was commissioned on Saturday.
• Known as LCS 29, the warship is designed for operations in both shallow waters and open seas.
• The Navy has retired several Freedom-class ships due to maintenance costs and mission capability.

The US Navy commissioned its newest $500 million littoral combat ship, USS Beloit, in Milwaukee on Saturday.

The new Freedom-class warship is named for Beloit, Wisconsin, where defense manufacturer Fairbanks Morse has long built engines and military technology for Navy vessels.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro touted the Beloit's improved engineering and advanced combat capabilities, upgrades necessary to surmount the challenges that have dogged the Freedom-class ships.

"USS Beloit reflects many of the engineering and weapons improvements that the littoral combat ship has gained since the Navy first began operating these ships," he said, adding that "when it receives new capabilities, such as the Naval Strike Missile, it will sail even more confidently in contested waters."

The new vessel's commissioning comes as the Navy pushes to scrap some of its extremely young fleet of littoral combat ships plagued by propulsion issues, design flaws, and costly maintenance.

An embattled legacy

The Navy operates two types of littoral combat ships: the Independence-class and the Freedom-class. The former class of ships has suffered from structural flaws, while a litany of maintenance issues has plagued the latter, and several of both classes have been deactivated before their time.

For example, USS Milwaukee, a $750 million Freedom-class ship, was decommissioned last year after just eight years in service. The LCS was originally meant to serve for 25 years. It is one of about half a dozen littoral combat ships — most being from the Freedom class — that have been pulled from active service.

Retired Navy Vice Adm. Dirk Debbink told Business Insider that the Navy has made improvements to the class since then.

"There's a lot of confidence in the engineering plant now, for example, which is a problem with some of the earlier ships of the class," he said of the USS Beloit. "I'm excited about this ship because I think it's going to hopefully redeem the class in general."

Whether the full range of issues with the LCS have been addressed remains to be seen. There have long been concerns about cost, performance, and survivability, and key questions persist regarding the LCS's suitability in a high-end fight against a near-peer adversary like the US military's pacing challenge — China. The Navy has since put some of its hopes for the LCS into the new class of frigate in development.

15th Freedom-class LCS

Built by Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the Navy describes USS Beloit, its 15th Freedom-variant LCS, as a "fast, agile" vessel that can operate in shallow waters near shore and in the open ocean. It has a much smaller crew than a destroyer and is armed with fewer weapons for sustained combat.

After it was christened in May 2022, the Beloit completed sea trials the following year and was delivered to the Navy in late September.

The warship will be homeported at Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida.

Spacious flight deck and hangar

The ship measures 387 feet long and can reach speeds of over 46 miles per hour — outpacing the rest of the fleet with its waterjet propulsion.

Its hangar can accommodate two MH-60 helicopters or one helicopter and one drone, and its flight deck is 50% larger than that of traditional surface combatants, according to the ship's commissioning committee.

A versatile fighter

LCSs are designed to support maritime security and deter enemy attacks. The Freedom-class ships are armed with a SeaRAM close-in weapon system that fires intercept missiles and a 57mm gun capable of firing up to 220 rounds per minute.

USS Beloit will also be equipped with Naval Strike Missiles, a long-range anti-ship weapon system capable of striking with high precision.

USS Beloit also includes an automated radio room, a decoy launching system, and a gunfire control system.

A history-making ship sponsor

Retired Maj. Gen. Marcia Anderson, the first Black woman to achieve that Army rank in 2011, was chosen to sponsor USS Beloit.

Navy secretaries choose sponsors based on their relationship to the vessel's namesake or mission, and Anderson's hometown is Beloit.

"It is important to recognize that small cities like Beloit have had an outsized impact on our National Security for over 100 years and also have a significant role in the history of our country," Anderson wrote in a statement on the ship's commission committee website.

"We must never forget that the reason our country is so admired around the world is because we have always been a nation that honors and recognizes the devotion and courage of ordinary people," she continued. "The USS Beloit exemplifies and continues that tradition."

Personnel

The ship's core crew consists of 50 sailors, and its spaces can accommodate up to 98 sailors.

Rocky the Badger

USS Beloit's battle flag features a badger, Wisconsin's state animal. The ship's mascot is named Rocky, after the Rock River in Beloit.

• A Chinese cargo ship is under investigation related to severed data cables in the Baltic Sea.
• A probe found that the vessel steamed ahead while dragging its anchor for over 100 miles.
• Western officials believe Russia likely orchestrated the attack on EU maritime infrastructure.

Two key undersea data cables in the Baltic Sea were severed earlier this month, prompting an investigation into a Chinese cargo ship for suspected sabotage.

European authorities said the Chinese-flagged bulk carrier, identified as Yi Peng 3, dragged its anchor over the Baltic seabed for over 100 miles, cutting the critical internet cables that link four NATO countries.

A timeline of events

On November 15, Yi Peng 3 departed from Russia's Ust-Luga port on the Baltic Sea carrying Russian fertilizer.

The Ust-Luga port is the largest universal port on the Baltic Sea and the Kremlin's second-largest port after Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. Since Sweden and Finland joined the alliance, the Baltic Sea has been referred to as "NATO lake" because it is almost entirely populated by alliance members.

Two days later, investigators established that the Chinese vessel dropped its anchor around 9 p.m. local time, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. However, the ship continued steaming with its anchor dropped and is believed to have severed an undersea telecoms cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania, per The Journal.

Investigators said Yi Peng 3 continued to sail for another 111 miles with its dragging anchor, which then cut the only communications cable connecting Finland with Germany less than twenty-four hours later.

It was only then that investigators said the vessel raised anchor and continued its route.

It's highly unusual for any vessel to drag its anchor for this long due to the dangers and fuel waste, an impediment that cannot go unnoticed by the ship's watch-standers. A crew typically recovers the anchor, or in the worst case, jettisons it, before steaming ahead.

The Chinese bulk carrier is now anchored in the Kattegat Strait and is being monitored by Danish naval patrol vessels as European authorities continue to investigate the potential sabotage.

Concerns of potential sabotage

Investigators said Yi Peng 3's movements couldn't be charted after it went "dark," meaning that the ship's transponder was shut down or disabled, thus obscuring its position.

Open-source satellite imagery, however, reportedly placed the Chinese ship near the damaged cables at the time of the respective incidents.

An investigator on the case told The Journal that it's "extremely unlikely" that the ship's captain wouldn't have noticed the vessel's dragging anchor.

"It's extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged its anchor, losing speed for hours and cutting cables on the way," the investigator said.

An analysis by Kpler, a global trade analytics firm, provided to The Journal found that "given the mild weather conditions and manageable wave heights, the likelihood of accidental anchor dragging appears minimal."

Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he believed the incident was a result of potential sabotage, telling reporters last week that "nobody believes that these cables were accidentally severed."

"We have to know that, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a hybrid action, and we also have to assume that, without knowing by whom yet, that this is sabotage," Pistorius said.

Russia accused of waging 'hybrid warfare'

Yi Peng 3's origin of departure raised concerns over potential Russian involvement in the incident, possibly in connection to the war in Ukraine.

Though the Chinese vessel and associated parties are under investigation over damaged cables, Western officials believe that Russian intelligence agencies orchestrated the incident.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian involvement, calling the accusations "absurd."

"It's quite absurd to keep blaming Russia for everything without any grounds. It is laughable in the context of the lack of any reaction to Ukraine's sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea," Peskov told reporters on November 20.

Foreign ministers of Finland and Germany released a joint statement on November 18, saying they were "deeply concerned" about the incident, which "immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage [and] speaks volumes about the volatility of our times.

"Our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors," the ministers said in the statement. "Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies."

The incident in the Baltic Sea comes just weeks after US officials warned that Russia would likely target undersea cables and other critical maritime infrastructure.

"We are concerned about heightened Russian naval activity worldwide and that Russia's decision calculus for damaging US and allied undersea critical infrastructure may be changing," a US official told CNN in September.

The official added that "Russia is continuing to develop naval capabilities for undersea sabotage" through its dedicated military unit known as the General Staff Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research, or GUGI.

China complying with the investigation

Denmark's foreign ministry said in a statement earlier this week that investigators were engaged in ongoing "diplomatic dialogue" with the countries "most involved in handling this case, including China."

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed the talks in a statement last Friday, saying Beijing "is currently working with relevant parties, including Denmark, to maintain smooth communication through diplomatic channels."

Chinese company Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, which owns Yi Peng 3, is also cooperating with the probe and allowed the vessel to be stopped while Swedish and German authorities negotiate access to the ship and its crew, The Journal reported.

The vessel's crew, which also includes a Russian sailor, has yet to be questioned due to restrictions under international maritime law.

• President-elect Trump confirmed his intent to use the US military for mass deportations in the US.
• Laws sharply limit the roles that federal troops can fill in US law enforcement.
• Trump could rely on state-led National Guard personnel or attempt to bypass a long-standing law.

President-elect Donald Trump said this week that his incoming administration plans to follow through on his campaign promise of using the US military to execute his mass deportation plan.

This puts his incoming administration on a potential collision course with long-standing laws and practices that sharply limit the use of US troops in law enforcement.

Trump's border czar has said US troops could assist immigration dragnets through non-enforcement roles that involve building structures, gathering intelligence, or flying migrants to the countries they fled. National Guard troops that report to state governors can support law enforcement, but the Posse Comitatus Act bars active-duty and federalized Guardsmen from acting as law enforcement.

Trump could rely on state-led National Guardsmen, however, or attempt to sidestep Posse Comitatus altogether through the Insurrection Act of 1807. But this would be an extreme move that's sure to trigger fierce opposition from state governors, lawsuits, and military officials.

"If the president were looking to use the Instruction Act to enforce immigration as a federal law, that would be a pretty extraordinary use, and that would be way out of custom," Mark Nevitt, who served as a judge advocate general in the US Navy, told Business Insider. "Arguably, there is an authority to do that, but again, it would be way out of the norms of its historic use."

When asked how the incoming administration would confront these limitations, Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump's transition team, said the president-elect "will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation" in US history.

"The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, like deporting migrant criminals and restoring our economic greatness," Leavitt told Business Insider in an emailed statement. "He will deliver."

What happens if Trump orders the US military to assist?

Each military branch has a civilian general counsel, who would likely be among the first officials to review whether a presidential order complies with the Posse Comitatus Act, said Gary Solis, a former Marine JAG. He described two potential scenarios:

1. The Army's general counsel concludes it is lawful, allowing US armed forces to move forward with Trump's order. This scenario would likely trigger a slew of lawsuits attempting to block its enforcement, Solis said.
2. The general counsel rejects the order, giving lower-level commanders the grounds to refuse it.

"But no law can interpret a presidential order in advance," Solis said. "Some orders would be obviously unlawful, but any order issued from Trump's office would be very carefully worded in an effort to make its execution by the military bulletproof."

Nevitt, an associate law professor at Emory University, said the PCA provision is "really, really nuanced" and doesn't explicitly "prohibit the National Guard from enforcing immigration laws."

The president can legally deploy the National Guard for domestic law enforcement through cooperation with state governors, provided that the military force is operating under state control and not federalized through the Insurrection Act and thus subjected to PCA restrictions.

"You can imagine that some governors will be more excited about this mission than others," Nevitt told BI. "You can fill in the blank on who those might be, but probably more Republican governors that are more friendly to President Trump. Those who are less friendly to President Trump would maybe not be as interested in taking on this mission."

"If President Trump tried to use this authority from a red state like Wyoming or Texas and put those National Guard troops in a blue state that is unwilling to accept them, that would be quite a crisis," he continued. "I think the state that did not want to accept these outside National Guard troops could say this is a violation of their own sovereignty, and they'd have a pretty powerful case that they could find a way to a lawsuit."

What roles can the US military fill?

On his social media platform, Truth Social, the former president this week commented "TRUE!!!" on a post about his plans to "declare a national emergency" and "use military assets" to carry out sweeping raids to deport millions of migrants a year.

Declaring a national emergency can provide the president with a broader set of powers to respond to crises, but it doesn't authorize the military to act as domestic law enforcers. The Trump administration may not attempt to use them as such to avoid triggering a backlash.

Agencies like US Immigration and Customs Enforcement lead efforts to locate and arrest migrants. A more robust immigration crackdown could require building bigger detention centers, where migrants are held through the deportation process. That's where Defense Department funding and personnel could come in.

Trump's "border czar," Thomas Homan, said using military funds would be a "force multiplier" in an immigration crackdown; Trump's first administration redirected billions of dollars from the Pentagon to build sections of the wall on the US-Mexico border.

But Homan, who formerly led ICE, specified that military personnel would be assigned "non-enforcement duties, such as transportation, whether it's on ground or air, infrastructure, building, [and] intelligence."

"We're hoping DoD will help us with air flights because there's a limited number of planes ICE has contracts with, so DoD can certainly help with air flights all across the globe," Homan said in a Tuesday interview on Fox Business Network.

Will troops want to become police?

Aside from the many legal challenges, Nevitt said he thinks that the troops might be reluctant to participate on the stance they signed up to be warfighters — not policemen.

"The military has, historically, not wanted this mission," Nevitt, who served in the Navy for two decades, said. "The federal military forces want to fight and win our nation's wars; they want to secure the nation's national security; they want to do operational deployments."

"In asking federal military forces to enforce immigration laws, there is going to be a strong cultural allergic reaction that's well grounded in civil-military norms," he added.

Nevitt said he thought federal troops carrying out domestic law enforcement would tarnish the "special trust" the American public holds in the military.

"As a veteran, the military is seen as protecting this country, keeping our country safe," he said. "There's going to be a lot of static if President Trump asks the military to do something that is beyond what they have historically been asked to do."