Glen VanHerck is a retired U.S. Air Force four-star general who served as commander of norad and usnorthcom. VanHerck ordered the February 2023 shoot-down of the Chinese high-altitude balloon and was in command during the December 2023 Langley drone swarm. Predecessor to gregory-guillot.
On camera with CBS 60 Minutes (March 2025), VanHerck publicly rejected the Biden administration’s “hobbyist” framing of the Langley incursions and warned the activity “could have a foreign nexus.” He frames U.S. homeland defense as still structured around a Cold War “fortress America” assumption that no longer holds.
Key Public Positions
- NORAD radars cannot detect low-flying drones.
- Langley drones were not hobbyists; pattern suggests deliberate surveillance of U.S. critical infrastructure.
- Homeland threat-model assumptions are outdated.