STEWART AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.Y. – The New York Guard’s 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart Air National Guard Base is introducing tethered drones to its arsenal of safety and security equipment to enhance its ability to respond to emergency situations and elevate situational awareness across the installation.
Tethered drones, unlike their free-flying counterparts, are essentially deployable, mobile security cameras attached to a cable, said Tech. Sgt. Brad Protsko, 105th Security Support Squadron training noncommissioned officer and liaison for this program. These “force multipliers” are meant to increase the effectiveness of security in emergencies and large-scale events by providing aerial perspectives, he explained.
The Air National Guard Readiness Center has distributed a number of tethered drones throughout the Air National Guard, based on installations’ different mission sets and the value the drones can provide. There were two primary factors that led the 105th to receive and use these assets, Protsko said.
First, these systems will give 105th members better situational awareness in a rapidly deployable package. They will enhance Airmen’s understanding of day-to-day security and support emergency response operations.
The second factor was the increased number of unarmed aerial systems, such as free-flying drones, spotted near airbases and airports throughout the Northeast in 2025. Tethered drones will help with the detection and deterrence of any encroachment into the 105th’s airspace that may be considered a threat to assets or personnel, Protsko said.
“As technology grows and the world evolves in the current climate, we are always looking at ways to utilize force multipliers,” Protsko said. “These systems can help our personnel make more well-informed decisions, increase awareness in multiple different situations and build a comprehensive picture of any scenario presented to us.”
Any unit at the 105th that operates one of the tethered drone units will be able to tailor the abilities to its own needs.
For example, drone kits can help the fire department detect problems without sending Airmen into harm’s way, or assist civil engineers in inspecting tall buildings from the ground, reducing diagnostic time and allowing more time for problem-solving.
Another unit that will benefit from the drones is the 105th Base Defense Group, which can use them both for day-to-day security and as an eye in the sky to provide additional information in an emergency. Any time the 105th Base Defense Group can have a real-time feed from another vantage point, the better, Protsko said.
The addition of these tethered drones to the 105th's arsenal will benefit daily operations across multiple units and provide mission-critical situational awareness from an elevated perspective, enabling an even higher level of force protection at the wing.