Tom Karako
Senior fellow and director of the Missile Defense Project at CSIS. Frequently quoted defense analyst on U.S. air- and missile-defense posture and, increasingly, counter-drone capability.
In April 2026 commentary on the JIATF-401 C-UAS surge, Karako argued the U.S. drone problem had been “artificially divided” between overseas combat and homeland threats and that increased investment, while “dramatically overdue,” reflects a long-anticipated requirement (src-counter-drone-middle-east-jiatf-2026-04). He suspects Coyote interceptors and Merops systems have done “the lion’s share of the drone killing” in CENTCOM.