Tower 22: Lethal drone attack was not the first time the U.S. military base in Jordan was hit

WASHINGTON — The lethal drone attack Sunday in Jordan was the third in six months on the base known as Tower 22 and highlights a gap in U.S. defenses that the Pentagon is scrambling to fill.

Sunday’s attack by a one-way drone killed three U.S. troops and wounded at least 34 more at the base on Jordan’s border with Syria. The White House has blamed Iranian-backed militias for the latest attack, which have become increasingly dangerous in recent weeks. There have been more than 150 such attacks targeting bases where U.S. troops are stationed in the Middle East since Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

The attack Sunday was the first to kill U.S. troops, and President Joe Biden has vowed retaliation. At Tower 22, there were two previous attacks by one-way drones, according to a Defense official who was not authorized to comment publicly. The drone Sunday detonated its payload of explosives near living quarters at the logistics base where about 350 U.S. soldiers and airmen are based.

One-way drones are programmed to hit a target and don’t require an operator to steer them after launching, according to the Army. In July, the Pentagon’s Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems office held tests in Arizona for weapons to destroy one-way drones.

No 'silver bullet' for drone attacks

The event was held after an analysis determined that there was a gap in defenses for the “emerging threat” of one-way drones, according to an Army news release.

High-powered microwaves showed promise in knocking down the drones, Army Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the counter-drone office, said at event in November in Washington. They can also be shot down with missiles, but it will take a variety of defenses to counter the threat.

"There isn't a silver bullet solution out there,” Gainey said.

Iran behind the deadly attack, Biden says

President Joe Biden blamed Iran for Sunday's attack. The administration has accused Iran of training and equipping the militants to use drones, rockets and missiles in their attacks throughout the Middle East.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday during a meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Air Force Gen. Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Iran was behind the attack and those on Red Sea shipping by Houthi militants in Yemen.

"Iran continues to destabilize the region, this includes backing terrorists who attack our ships in the Red Sea and the U.S. is leading international efforts to end these attacks," Stoltenberg said.

Pentagon needs an MRAP moment

The emergence of one-way attack drones echoes the use of improvised explosive devices, the number one killer of U.S. troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As with drones, militants used cheap, often off-the-shelf materials to build weapons that exploited a Pentagon vulnerability. With IEDs, the weakness targeted was the thin armor and flat bottom of Humvees. Today, that weakness is protecting the air space over what can be sprawling bases in the desert from small, cheap drones.

During the height of the wars more than a decade ago, the Pentagon launched an office similar to Gainey's — the Joint IED Defeat Organization — and spent tens of billions of dollars on efforts protect troops from roadside bombs, including more than $45 billion for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected trucks, or MRAPS, to replace Humvees.

Gainey, according to a Pentagon account of his speech in November, said all troops will likely be required to defend against drones, as they they will shape the future battlefield.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lethal Tower 22 Jordan attack was the third in six months