In July of last year, a drone was used in an apparent attack on a power substation in Pennsylvania. The person or persons behind the attack have not been caught. To say that this is concerning should be an understatement.
But before you assume this might have been some kind of misunderstanding, or an accident that was labelled ‘attack’ for media-hype purposes, it wasn’t. It’s become very clear that the attack was pre-planned and intentional, i.e. that it wasn’t simply a drone that wandered off course and hit a power line.
What happened
The drone was a Mavic Air 2, a popular model commonly used by civilians for a variety of personal and professional uses. The Mavic Air 2 has a maximum flight time of a little over 30 minutes, and a maximum range of around 11.5 miles – although both of those specs can be modified to a degree.
But what makes this particular Mavik drone different is that it had been modified, first to remove any identifying part or serial numbers, and secondly to add a pair of ‘arms’, that held a length of thick copper between them. The idea appears to be that the drone was to fly over high-voltage transmission lines at the plant, and drop the cable so as to land it between a pair of these lines, leading to a massive short-circuit, that would then likely cause significant damage to the infrastructure of the plant, such a blowing the transformers and/or switch gear.
The attack ended up not working, as the drone snagged on one of the buildings on it’s way to the target, and was unable to get free. But if not for that accident, no one can say what might have happened.
What this means
There have been a string of incidents all over the country during the past few years, everything from deliberate cuts of overseas communication cables to attacks on water treatment facilities, and more.
And while some of these attacks might all be separate incidents committed by amateurs (and some of them certainly are), some of them are just as likely part of an intentional effort to test and evaluate weak points and vulnerabilities, either by foreign actors or any number of other groups inside or outside the US.
