By Dronelife Features Editor Jim Magill
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories 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. The first installment will examine a government push to expand the authority of state and local law enforcement agencies to take a leading role in ensuring safer skies over World Cup soccer tournament events.)
In terms of protecting major sporting events — such as the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament matches — from potential threats posed by rouge drones, the U.S. federal government has just changed the game.
The Safer Skies Act, which Congress passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026, which President Trump signed into law last month, gives state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement agencies the authority to detect, and in some cases bring down, UAVs that pose a potential threat to people or property.
Federal agencies have moved quickly to use the Safer Skies Act to establish counter-UAS operations at World Cup venues and other important sites. Earlier this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the distribution of $250 million. in grant funds to 11 states hosting World Cup events and to the National Capital Region (NCR), which will host events in association with the nation’s 250 birthday celebration in 2026.
The agency said this was its fastest deployment of non-disaster grant funds in FEMA’s history. The $250 million represents the first tranche of a two-part $500 million grant. Next year, the remaining $250 million will be distributed among all U.S. states and territories with an expanded focus on building drone detection and response capacity nationwide.
In an email statement to DroneLife, Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of the sponsors of the Safer Skies Act, said the legislation would “help ensure law enforcement has the tools to effectively protect and secure major public events – like the 2026 World Cup.”
The Act grants SLTT agencies new authority to conduct counter-UAS operations, a power previously relegated to a handful of federal agencies; restricts the deployment of counter-UAS systems to a federally approved list; and requires personnel operating counter-UAS technology to undergo federally approved training.
Under the FEMA grant program, California, which will host World Cup events in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, will receive the largest counter-UAS grant, almost $34.6 million. Texas, which will host World Cup events in Dallas and Houston, will receive the second-highest funding amount, almost $30.3 million.
The District of Columbia representing the NCR on behalf of the itself, and the states of Maryland and Virginia, will receive the third largest grant, an allocation of about $28.3 million.
Other states hosting World Cup events and the amount of grant money they will receive from FEMA include: Florida, about $23.6 million; Massachusetts, about $21.9 million; New Jersey, about $21.8 million; Georgia, about $20.3 million; Washington state, about $19.5 million; New York, about $17.7 million; Missouri, about $14.2 million; Pennsylvania, $12.5 million; and Kansas, $5.3 million.
Carter Lee, an attorney specializing in aviation-related law with the firm of Woods Rogers, said recipients of the grant moneys have the authority to distribute those funds to subrecipients, usually public safety organizations, while up to 20% of the founds can go to a state level law enforcement. “You look at these grants and the Safer Skies Act in tandem. The Safer Skies Act gave expanded authority to state, local tribal government law enforcement specifically to conduct counter-UAS activities,” he said.
Safer Skies Act a Watershed Event
Drone industry advocates and observers have credited the passage of the Safer Skies Act as a watershed event in advancing drone safety and security.
“The Safer Skies Act represents a long overdue update to the drone security framework,” Michael Robbins president and CEO of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), said in an interview with DroneLife. “It is an important step forward in taking the policy framework and advancing it to where we need it to be for the threat environment in 2026, particularly as the US prepares to host a number of World Cup matches and as we’re prepared to host the Olympics in 2028.”
Robbins said a key piece of the legislation is the provision requiring law enforcement personnel deploying drone detection-and-mitigation technology to undergo rigorous training in a federal facility. To that end, the FBI last year created the National Counter-Unmanned Training Center (NCUTC) in Huntsville, Alabama to train future operators of counter-UAS systems. The Center recently graduated its first class of trainees.
“To their credit, the FBI opened up their training center of excellence in August, before this legislation even passed,” he said. “They have been training state, local, tribal, territorial law enforcement for the past five months.”
The FBI has been prioritizing providing counter-UAS operations training to law enforcement officers from cities hosting World Cup events, Robbins said. This early start to the training process, “allowed them to start building a cadre of people who can be deputized to help with UAS detection and mediation as part of this this new delegation of authority.”
Another aspect of ramping up the scope of counter-UAS operations at all the different sites hosting World Cup events in time for the tournament’s launch in June will be the approval by the federal government of acceptable counter-UAS technologies, including technologies to detect and identify drones within a certain airspace, as well as drone mitigation technologies, designed to ground a suspect UAV.
“You’ve got a lot of companies that have various different types of technology solutions for detection,” he said. “That may be through radar; it may be through acoustic; it may be through optical.”
In addition, federal agencies, such as the Transportation Security Administration and FAA will have to approve the technologies required for UAS mitigation, before SLTT offers can be allowed to deploy them. These include kinetic, non-kinetic and cyber-mitigation technologies, Robbins said.
He added that these types of drone mitigation systems will likely only be deployed as a last resort, to take down a drone deemed to present an imminent danger to people or property.
“Obviously the intent is — and I think the training emphasizes this — if you don’t have to use the mitigation technology then don’t,” he said. “I think the idea is that the option is on the table there for law enforcement.”
(Future installments in this series will examine how various states and cities plan to use the FEMA grant monies to install counter-UAS technology at or near World Cup sites.)
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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.
