{"id":126614,"date":"2026-03-18T04:20:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/900166709"},"modified":"2026-03-18T04:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:20:47","slug":"virginia-tech-study-looks-to-better-defend-against-possible-drone-strikes-on-american-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/virginia-tech-study-looks-to-better-defend-against-possible-drone-strikes-on-american-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Tech study looks to better defend against possible drone strikes on American soil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If enemies of the U.S. launch drone attacks on American soil, how can we protect potential targets?<\/p>\n

A study<\/a> aimed at answering that question is well underway at Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to sound alarmist, but we\u2019re probably due for something,\u201d Eric Jacques, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, told WTOP. \u201cI think raising awareness, building in good principles of structural engineering, structural design to protect against these possible threats is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take deep pockets or a sophisticated expertise to launch deadly drones, but the technology used to bring them down, including interceptor missiles and lasers, can be very expensive.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Jacques is leading a research effort in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to find more cost-effective ways to protect power plants, bridges and other critical structures from potential drone strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about is passive protection; trying to make a site or facility that\u2019s harder to approach, harder to target and less vulnerable if it is attacked,\u201d Jacques said. \u201cIt\u2019s an investment you make once, and then it does its job waiting for hopefully an attack that never occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacques said that protection could look like a false roof, or blast-resistant windows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may mean planting a bunch of trees and putting up nets, or even putting false targets around a structure to make it look like an attractive weak point when, in fact, it\u2019s really not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The researchers are working to take principles of defense that may have been used in the past to prevent car bombings, and expanding them to address the three dimensional threat posed by drones.<\/p>\n

Jacques said the research work started nine months ago, well before the start of America\u2019s war with Iran.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study at Virginia Tech<\/span> aims to protect plants, bridges … is well underway at Virginia Tech<\/span>. \u00e2\u0080\u009cI don\u00e2\u0080\u0099t want to … and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech<\/span>, told WTOP. \u00e2\u0080\u009cI think raising … to launch deadly drones, but the technology<\/span> used to bring them down …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}