After Pearl Harbor, no more strategic mistakes

With the emerging threat of drones, this really should be in the Air Force’s jurisdiction.

Authors in countless books on the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor argue that strategic war alert hard intelligence was there in bits and pieces, but not acted on correctly.

A strategic mistake was made at Pearl Harbor by the USAAF commanding general—he responded to a fragmented war alert by clustering his aircraft, to protect against individual saboteurs who might sneak onto airfields. LT Gen. Walter Short ordered planes to be parked closely together in tight rows rather than dispersed. This decision made the aircraft sitting ducks for strafing and bombing runs during the Japanese attack.

Now another fragmentary 21st-century “Pearl Harbor” type of intelligence war alert is in the making, as reported on October 4–5, 2026 in a Mexican news publication, translated here:

Mexican Army personnel located and seized an improvised camp belonging to an organized crime faction operating in southern Sinaloa, where they secured 15 drones, related technical equipment, and more than 40 explosive devices.

This evidence supports ongoing concern about increasingly sophisticated attacks, but it does not yet prove that cartels possess military-grade, long-range killer drones comparable to the most advanced systems used in Ukraine…yet!

Protecting against this emerging threat is General Gregory M. Guillot; the general is a senior air battle manager with more than 1,380 flying hours, and his area of responsibility “air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles.” His homeland defense geographic challenge is truly significant.

So far, the Pentagon’s response to that massive defense burden, with new and emerging threats from the skies, has been the creation of Army lead “JIATF 401”, as described by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth:

To ensure that American airspace remains secure, Secretary Hegseth directed Secretary of the Army to formally establish the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) — a new, unified team that will bring together our best talent from across all agencies to counter these threats and restore control of our skies.

‘We’re moving fast — cutting through bureaucracy, consolidating resources, and empowering this task force with the utmost authority to outpace our adversaries,’ said Secretary Hegseth.

Okay, that’s all well and good, but the USAF is designed to keep control of our skies. Putting the Army in command of joint combat command to do this is an organizational choice; in my opinion, it would be much more strategic to make this an Air Force mission. In a March 15 2026 American Thinker article I warn of what can come.

History suggests it always takes time for a new threat to be properly recognized and defended against. One successful mass-casualty drone strike on American soil would instantly become an ‘all hands on deck’ moment. The question is whether we wait for that attack or prepare before it arrives.

At this point, the JIATF 401 has more of a defense research focus; U.S. drone-killing technology can include kinetic weapons, and directed energy. The Military Times reported this just six days ago:

The Pentagon on Monday named four directed-energy weapons for a homeland counter-drone pilot, the first systems the military will field and test at U.S. bases under a program ordered by Congress.

The pilot is run by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, the Army-led organization set up last year to coordinate counter-drone work across the military and other federal agencies.

However, unlike a quip in my fighter pilot days—“it’s the unseen missile that kills you”—we now have a very good chance to see the incoming combat drones, which has previously been one of the greatest challenges. The risk of misidentification has been great, but hopefully, won’t be for much longer.

With a drone’s capability to penetrate over 3,000 miles into America and target undefended high value civilian targets deep in our homeland, we have a very serious emerging problem, a potential Pearl Harbor problem.

And before we worry about the cartels, we have to wonder about Iran.

Because of such a wide area threat, and a very well-funded enemy with a primary goal of destroying America, the Air Force should be in the lead.

It is simply the fundamental principle that the Air Force holds air superiority.

Americans do not deserve to awaken to a headline or a congressional hearing about how our fighting forces could sense and track the threat up to the moment it killed you.

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