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When a report emerged earlier this month that the FBI had alerted California police departments that Iran could launch drone attacks on the state from a vessel off the West Coast, it understandably raised anxiety among residents.

But the FBI’s warning, which was sent in late February, was based on unverified information. The White House quickly downplayed the notion that there was an Iranian drone threat to the homeland. On March 11, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that the tenuous drone plot was being “investigated,” but he also said that he wasn’t worried about Iran carrying out a domestic terrorist attack on U.S. soil. That same day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that drone issues “have always been top of mind” but that he wasn’t aware of any “imminent threats” to California.

When a report emerged earlier this month that the FBI had alerted California police departments that Iran could launch drone attacks on the state from a vessel off the West Coast, it understandably raised anxiety among residents.

But the FBI’s warning, which was sent in late February, was based on unverified information. The White House quickly downplayed the notion that there was an Iranian drone threat to the homeland. On March 11, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that the tenuous drone plot was being “investigated,” but he also said that he wasn’t worried about Iran carrying out a domestic terrorist attack on U.S. soil. That same day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that drone issues “have always been top of mind” but that he wasn’t aware of any “imminent threats” to California.

More recently, unidentified drones have been detected flying over the military base where U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth live—and officials have reportedly considered relocating them amid concerns over the possibility of Iranian retaliatory attacks.

While there does not appear to be any firm intelligence pointing to an imminent Iranian drone attack on U.S. soil, experts warn that Washington still needs to be prepared for such threats. And even if Iran does not decide to take direct action against the U.S. homeland, its proxies or lone-wolf actors could use drones in an attack.

“The U.S. should very much be concerned about all possible contingencies. While flying planes into buildings was once the work of fiction, it happened in real life on Sept. 11, 2001,” said Colin Clarke, an international security expert and executive director of the Soufan Center. “The 9/11 Commission Report called the failure to prevent 9/11 a failure of imagination. So the same would apply to novel [unmanned aerial vehicle] threats that could impact the U.S. homeland.”

James Patton Rogers, an expert on drones at Cornell University, said that he’s been concerned that drones could be used in a “surprise........

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