CAPE CANAVERAL — Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is near the top of the list for new counter-drone defenses from a Pentagon task force, the commander of Space Launch Delta 45 told Defense One, though officials will not say what systems are coming or exactly when.
Col. Brian Chatman, who oversees all East Coast launch missions, made the comments in an interview at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, reported Sept. 18 by Defense One’s Thomas Novelly. He said the Cape is “top of their list” for “investing in additional capability.”
“We’re going to see an inject of new capability here in the very short term from JIATF 401, based on the latest and greatest in technology that’s out there,” Chatman said, according to Defense One, adding that it would be integrated with what the base has today. The outlet described the timeline as the coming weeks.
JIATF 401 is Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Pentagon’s task force for countering small unmanned aircraft. Chatman did not name the technology, and a Space Launch Delta 45 spokesperson did not either. Lt. Col. Adam Scher, a spokesperson for the task force, told Defense One that “strategic installations are prioritized” for counter-drone fielding but declined to discuss specific capabilities at specific locations. “There is no silver bullet,” Scher said.
Chatman framed the need as a detection gap rather than a product. “It’s great today that my radars can see a Cessna up to a 747,” he told Defense One. What he needs, he said, is to see from a “747 down to a quadcopter.”
The interview does not say what sensors the base uses now, which vendor is involved, or whether new equipment would change anything for Port Canaveral, beach access or public launch viewing. None of that has been made public, and 321 Daily is not guessing at it.
Launch volume helps explain the timing. Defense One cited 109 rocket launches from the Cape last year against 66 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The 109 figure is the Eastern Range total, counting Kennedy Space Center and the Space Force station together, a record for the Space Coast.
Chatman tied that pace to a broader argument about manpower. He said one launch provider has offered to pay for an automated scanner that could clear construction trucks through the gate in about 30 seconds instead of a roughly 10-minute inspection. That is a separate effort from the counter-drone equipment. With a White House goal of 1,000 launches and re-entries a year by the end of the decade, he said, “the Space Force can’t do it alone” and depends heavily on Air Force firefighters, security forces and civil engineers.
This is not the first counter-drone work at the Cape. Breaking Defense reported in December on a multimillion-dollar effort to expand small-drone defenses across the Eastern Range, and the installation of a system was reported locally in January. Chatman’s comments describe a new addition from the Pentagon task force, not that earlier project.
Small drones in restricted airspace are already a live issue here. A tourist pleaded guilty in federal court in Orlando on Sept. 18 to violating national defense airspace after flying a drone from Playalinda Beach over Kennedy Space Center’s launch pads in July, a case 321 Daily has covered, and Port Canaveral has said it logged more than 500 unauthorized drone flights in 2025. Nothing in Chatman’s remarks links the new equipment to any single incident.
For Brevard residents, the confirmed facts are narrow: Space Force leadership says the Cape is high on the Pentagon’s counter-drone list and that something new is arriving soon. What it is, where it goes and what it means outside the fence line are questions the military has not answered.