---
born: 2001
category: Extremism & Violent Networks
created: 2026-05-22
location: Columbia, Tennessee
summary: Skyler Philippi is a Columbia, Tennessee man with prior Atomwaffen Division
  and National Alliance affiliations who pleaded guilty September 9, 2025, to attempting
  to use a weapon of mass destruction by deploying a drone loaded with C-4 against
  a Nashville-area electrical substation.
tags:
- Person
- NeoNazi
- Accelerationism
- AtomwaffenDivision
- NationalAlliance
- FederalCase
- Tennessee
- USA
- InfrastructureSabotage
- WeaponOfMassDestruction
updated: 2026-05-22
---

[Skyler Philippi](/people/skyler-philippi/) (born approximately 2001, Columbia, Tennessee) pleaded guilty on September 9, 2025, to two counts in the Middle District of Tennessee: attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction under 18 U.S.C. § 2332a, and attempting to destroy an energy facility. His plot involved attaching what he believed to be C-4 plastic explosive to a drone and flying it into a Nashville-area electrical substation. FBI undercover employees and confidential human sources disrupted the plot during its November 2024 operational phase, arresting Philippi on-site as he prepared to attach the explosive device to the drone. Sentencing was scheduled for January 8, 2026, with a maximum penalty of life in prison.[^1]

### Prior Extremist Affiliations

In August 2024, Philippi told an undercover employee that he had written a "manifesto" outlining his desire to attack "high tax cities or industrial areas" and disclosed prior affiliation with [Atomwaffen Division](/organizations/atomwaffen-division/) and the National Alliance. The National Alliance, founded by William Luther Pierce and the original publisher of *The Turner Diaries*, had undergone multiple leadership transitions after Pierce's 2002 death; its surviving membership in the early 2020s overlapped significantly with Terrorgram-adjacent online communities. Philippi's path from AWD-adjacent ideology to Terrorgram-era infrastructure targeting mirrored that of other defendants in the [Terrorgram Collective](/organizations/terrorgram-collective/) network, though his case was charged separately, not within the [United States v. Humber](/events/united-states-v-humber/) prosecution.

### Planning and Operational Conduct

In June 2024, Philippi communicated to a confidential human source (CHS) that he wanted to commit a mass shooting at a YMCA facility near Columbia, Tennessee. He subsequently shifted his focus to infrastructure attack, researching previous attacks on electrical substations and concluding that firearms-only attacks were insufficient. He planned instead to use a drone with explosives capable of causing damage sufficient to knock out power to thousands of homes and critical facilities including hospitals.

Philippi researched self-built drone construction to reduce detection risk and identified TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) and C-4 as preferred explosive materials. In November 2024, in a staged operation, Philippi and undercover FBI employees drove to his intended Nashville launch site; he was arrested as he prepared to attach a device he believed to contain 3 pounds of C-4 explosive to the drone.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Kurtzman of the Middle District of Tennessee and Trial Attorneys [Justin Sher](/people/justin-sher/) and James Donnelly of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section.[^2]

[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Man Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Use a Weapon of Mass Destruction and Attempting to Destroy an Energy Facility in Nashville." September 9, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-pleads-guilty-attempting-use-weapon-mass-destruction-and-attempting-destroy-energy; U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-MDTN. "Columbia Man Pleads Guilty." September 9, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdtn/pr/columbia-man-pleads-guilty-attempting-use-weapon-mass-destruction-and-destroy-energy
[^2]: CNN. "Skyler Philippi pleads guilty to charges that he meant to blow up a Nashville power site with a bomb-laden drone." September 9, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/09/us/nashville-power-substation-bomb-plot-plea; ABC News. "Man pleads guilty to neo-Nazi-inspired plot to bomb Nashville energy facility: DOJ." September 9, 2025. https://abcnews.com/US/man-pleads-guilty-neo-nazi-inspired-plot-bomb/story?id=125401895