“Right now we don’t have the legal authorities to properly defend our country, and we’ve known about it for years,” said retired Maj. Gen. James Poss, formerly the Air Force’s most senior intelligence officer. …

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) zealously protects the right of any aircraft to use public airspace, and a drone flying 2 inches off the ground qualifies. A federal interagency advisory warns that interfering with a suspicious drone may violate the Aircraft Sabotage Act, the Aircraft Piracy Act or other aviation laws. “All of the protections follow, no matter how big it is or how little it is,” said Daniel Delgado, a 22-year FBI veteran who worked on defenses against drones and weapons of mass destruction. A drone “that the kids are buying online has the same protections as the latest Boeing 787,” Delgado says.

Small, off-the-shelf drones are just one category of what experts refer to as unmanned aerial systems, or UAS. The U.S. military divides aircraft with no pilot on board into five categories, according to maximum takeoff weight, operating altitude and top speed. Groups 1 and 2 correspond to the FAA definition of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which weigh between 0.55 and 55 pounds. …

Last Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee that since Oct. 7, a “veritable rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations” have called for attacks against Americans and U.S. allies. No group appears likely to flood heavily armed fighters across the U.S. border, as Hamas did in Israel. But “there is no limitation to human invention,” Delgado said. “Everybody thinks it’s going to be cool to get your Oreos delivered by a drone, but has anybody ever thought about what else an unmanned system can do?” …

FBI Director Wray has warned before of terrorists plotting to use drones as improvised explosive devices. Yet the agency currently has just a tiny staff assigned to the problem of unmanned aerial systems. “I actually do lose sleep over the fact that the FBI only has three agents doing counter-UAS to protect the entire United States,” said retired general Poss. Those who find that fear melodramatic should ask themselves whether they ever expected al Qaeda to fly hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

When our government is stumped, it’s up to us to wage war in the spiritual realm. Share this article to encourage others to pray about this drone threat.

(Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal. Photo Credit: Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash)