The National Nuclear Security Administration’s radiation-sniffing helicopter started a campaign of low-altitude flights over Washington on Monday, part of an effort to safeguard against a nuclear-armed attack on January’s looming presidential inauguration.
The agency routinely measures background radiation ahead of large public gatherings to create a base level against which the source of a radiological dispersal device — a dirty bomb — would pop out.
The two flights on Monday by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Nuclear Emergency Support Team helicopter, which flies out of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, were the first of 14 scheduled flights to map out the D.C. area. The helicopter flew in a grid pattern, moving about 80 miles per hour at an altitude of some 150 feet, according to an NNSA press release.
“The aircraft measurements will be purely scientific in nature, and no surveillance or other form of monitoring will occur during these flights,” the NNSA wrote in its presser. “The aerial surveys are a normal part of security and emergency preparedness activities. NNSA is making the public aware of the upcoming flights so citizens who see the low-flying aircraft are not alarmed.”
The NNSA’s rad-sniffing helicopter caused a minor stir in June, when one of the aircraft went out for a post-maintenance test-flight over Washington during protests against racially motivated police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd: a black man who died in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers, including a white officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
The nuclear agency quickly clarified that its helicopter flight this summer was not part of a response to the civil unrest in the nation’s capital, during which, media reported, the D.C. National Guard used at least two military helicopters for crowd control at the protests.
Meanwhile, the pre-inauguration flights could be among the last for the existing Nuclear Emergency Support Team helicopter, one of two routinely deployed craft in the NNSA’s broader Aerial Measuring System fleet.
Besides the helicopters, the fleet includes fixed-wing aircraft that were replaced last year with new custom-modified King Air 350ER airplanes provided by Textron Aviation. The rotary fleet is due for an upgrade next. The NNSA’s counterterrorism office is leading the procurement. The old fixed-wing fleet had been in service for decades before the agency swapped it out.
