Tower 22<\/u>, the U.S. base in Jordan where three U.S. troops were killed by a one-way attack drone late last month, suffered from inadequate anti-drone defenses, said military sources who have served on the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lethal attack followed a spate of one-way drone attacks on U.S. bases in neighboring Syria and Iraq in recent weeks, an escalation by anti-American militants since the outbreak of Israel\u2019s war on the Gaza Strip. No one was reported killed in the previous attacks, including one on Al-Tanf in Syria, a base just 12 miles away from Tower 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the repeated attacks and a well-funded Pentagon\u2019s investment in counter-drone technology, the U.S. military failed to stop the Tower 22 drone attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We had a radar system called TPS-75 that was broken 80 percent of the time I was there.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe air defenses were minimal, if any,\u201d an Air Force airman, who served at Tower 22 last year, told The Intercept. \u201cWe relied heavily on aircraft from MSAB\u201d \u2014 Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a nearby Jordanian base that houses a U.S. military presence \u2014 \u201cto stop any targets. We had a radar system called TPS-75 that was broken 80 percent of the time I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A preliminary military investigation reported in the Washington Post<\/a> on Tuesday concluded that the drone was never detected, likely by flying too low for the bases antiquated radar system. Just a week before the attack, the military announced an $84 million contract<\/a> to work on a replacement to the TPS-75, a mobile, ground-based radar array from the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
With inadequate defenses in place, the Tower 22 drone attack led to the deaths of the three U.S. service members and injuries to at least 40 others, casualties that spurred deepening U.S. military involvement in a tense Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe small U.S. military contingents in Iraq and Syria have long represented a vulnerability \u2014 as convenient targets for anyone wishing to make a violent anti-U.S. statement,\u201d said Paul Pillar, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and Georgetown University\u2019s Center for Security Studies. \u201cOver the past four months those targets have become an extension of the Gaza war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
After the Tower 22 deaths, prominent Republicans in Congress, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called for the U.S. to directly bomb Iran<\/a>, which backs the militias that took responsibility<\/a> for the attack. Last Friday, U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon\u2019s combat command for the Middle East, announced<\/a> that it had conducted airstrikes on over 85 Iranian-aligned targets in Iraq and Syria, the largest U.S. strike on the militias since Israel’s war on Gaza war began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recriminations would only deepen U.S. involvement in the conflict, Pillar said: \u201cThe U.S. airstrikes on targets in Syria and Iraq \u2014 as retaliation for retaliation for the U.S. support for Israel \u2014 represents a further extension of the war in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPlenty of Reason to Harden Defenses\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
American service members familiar with Tower 22 outlined the small outpost\u2019s paltry capabilities to detect and defend against air attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have outposts surrounding the base, but that does little to nothing when faced with attacking aircraft,\u201d said the airman, who, like other members of the military who had been deployed to Tower 22, requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the sensitive base. \u201cOnly solution was to \u2018blackout,\u2019\u201d he added, referring to the practice of turning off lights to obscure locations during an air raid. \u201cAnd even when we had blackouts no one adhered to the rules of the blackout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An Army soldier currently deployed to another base in Jordan and who has served at Tower 22 echoed the airman\u2019s account, saying bases in the area lacked key countermeasures for aerial threats, including capable alert systems and two defense systems designed for small, low-flying drones and rocket and artillery attacks, respectively. The network of small outposts in Jordan, Syria, and Iraq have to rely on warnings provided to them from outside the base through secure phone system, sometimes resulting in service members warning others by knocking on doors, the Army soldier said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n