(Editor’s note: This story is part of a series of reports on efforts to establish new counter-UAS protocols in the U.S. to protect high-profile sporting events and critical infrastructure from the potential threats posed by drones flown by careless or hostile actors.)
New York state will have the necessary counter-UAS equipment and trained personnel to operate it, in time for the FIFA World Cup events set to get under way in late June, the state’s newly named security and intelligence head told DroneLife.
“We’re confident that working with our federal partners, that we’ll be able to keep the events safe. We’ve been working on this for many months with our federal partners — with FEMA, with DHS, with the FBI, with the FAA,” Colin Ahern said in an interview.
“We look to mature these capabilities through this event, and then as the threat continues to evolve, ensure that we’re able to continue to drive the capabilities and synchronization needed to keep airspace safe.”
On February 28, New York Governor Kathy Hochul tapped in Ahern to serve as New York State’s first-ever Director of Security and Intelligence (DSI). In that position, he will coordinate statewide activities to respond to global risks and create opportunities for advancing the state’s defense industrial base and technologies crucial to national security.
New York is one of 11 states designated as recipients of a $250 million FEMA grant to establish counter-UAS capabilities in cities that are hosting FIFA World Cup events beginning in June. Part of the FEMA funding also will go to counter-drone operations at events associated with the America 250 celebrations.
The state will receive $17.2 million through the grant program, with the funds being divided up among four state agencies. The New York State Police will receive about $6.65 million, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) about $2.61 million, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) about $1.50 million and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) about $6.46 million.
The state will play host to eight World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium (which for the World Cup events will be referred to as New York New Jersey Stadium), including the final on July 19.
Ahern said the agencies receiving the FEMA funds would use the grant moneys “to procure detection, tracking, identification and mitigation systems” and the associated software to deal with threats posed by malicious drones and “in collaboration with our federal partners, and per FAA and FBI guidance and regulations, mitigate those drones that may be attempting to conduct nefarious activities.”
Although he declined to comment on what specific mitigation technologies might be employed, Ahern said the law enforcement agencies operating the counter-UAS equipment would tend to take “the least aggressive means possible” to interdict rouge drones.
“We want to be able to identify, surveil, detect, track and mitigate, and we want to use the least disruptive means possible to do that in all cases,” he said.
Ahern said any counter-UAS operations that take place must not be allowed to interfere with the large volume of legitimate drone activity populating New York’s airspace. “Fundamentally our perspective is to use intelligence-driven, threat-based tools with the least disruptive capabilities possible to keep these events safe while allowing lawful activity to continue to occur,” he said.
He acknowledged that the time frame for purchasing counter-UAS equipment and training law enforcement officials in its use in time for the start of the first FIFA events was tight, but said the goal is achievable.
“We’ve been working on this for many months with our federal partners — with FEMA, with DHS, with the FBI, with the FAA,” he said.
New York has also sent a number of law enforcement offices from the state police and from other police departments to attend the training at the FBI’s National Counter-Unmanned Training Center (NCUTC) at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Such training is a requirement for state and local police officers to be qualified to conduct counter-drone mitigations.
He added that the counter-UAS capabilities that the state and its partners establish for the World Cup matches will remain in place to provide security at future events.
“We look to mature these capabilities through this event, and then as the threat continues to evolve, ensure that we’re able to continue to drive the capabilities and synchronization needed to keep airspace safe even after the event concludes,” he said. “It’s not like this will be the last time we do a big special public event in New York State.”
With the onset of war in the Middle East, security officials such as Ahern worry that the potential threat arising from maliciously operated drones has increased dramatically.
“We monitor events overseas very carefully. Obviously, it’s a dynamic and challenging situation,” he said.
State Meeting the Challenges of the Drone Age
He noted that the Hochul administration has been very proactive in its efforts to deal with both the positive and negative impacts of the rapidly growing drone ecosystem.
He pointed to the governor’s proposed executive budget, which Hochul outlined in her recent State of the State address, which addresses the need to establish counter-UAS capabilities as well as provisions to bolster the state’s robust drone manufacturing industry.
“We have a comprehensive drone and counter-drone package. We intend to be the first state to achieve legislative compliance at the state level with the federal Safer Skies Act,” Ahern said. The legislation introduced by the governor “creates additional protections for critical infrastructure and public events, and is integrated with the new federal legislative authorities.”
Under the proposed budget, the New York State Police department is expected to launch a drones-as-first-responder pilot program, funded with millions of federal dollars from the bipartisan Safer Skies Act.
In addition, the state is seeking to expand its capacity to build new UAVs and related equipment, particularly along Drone Valley, a 50-mile corridor between Syracuse and Rome. He pointed to other thriving aviation-related facilities in the region, including the new NUAIR headquarters at Syracuse Hancock International Airport, which is dedicated to promoting the development of unmanned aircraft systems and advanced air mobility (AAM), as well as Griffiss Air Force Base, which boasts one of the largest indoor drone testing facilities in the world.
“We have an enormous amount of capability in New York State to a lot of drone and counter-drone development,” he said. “And so, we want to magnify those effects.”
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
Ian McNabb is a journalist focusing on drone technology and lifestyle content at Dronelife. He is based between Boston and NH and, when not writing, enjoys hiking and Boston area sports.
