Jammers, interceptors, detection networks — the technology built to stop drones.
Counter-drone technology sits on the wrong side of an asymmetry: detecting a drone is legal for almost anyone, and disabling one is a federal crime for almost everyone. This desk tracks the technology and the law in the same place, because neither makes sense without the other.
The bottleneck is certification, not hardware. Texas wants counter-drone power for its cartel-drone problem, and only 61 US officers nationwide are certified to use it — a training pipeline problem sitting on top of a genuine security need. At the federal level the gap runs even higher: NORTHCOM’s own deputy commander has said the command cannot stop a homeland drone swarm, a rare public admission from the agency actually responsible for it.
Detection, the legal half of the problem, keeps advancing. Duke University demonstrated a drone that tracks another drone using only its sound — passive, no emission, no legal exposure. Passive systems like that are where most near-term counter-drone deployment is actually happening, precisely because they sidestep the jamming restrictions.
Europe is moving fastest because it has been provoked directly. Germany opened a dedicated counter-drone test center at Cochstedt after a cargo-drone bomb hit an Antonov’s wing at Leipzig, and drones repeatedly circled Europe’s only Patriot missile repair base at Mechernich in the following days.
Related desks: Russia and Ukraine for the conflict driving most of the innovation in this space, drone incidents for airspace violations more broadly, and the FAA hub for the domestic regulatory picture. Every counter-drone story lands in the feed below.
Last updated October 15, 2026 — the feed below updates with every new story.
CBP counted 37,000 near-border drone flights in FY2026, down from 42,000. Its February data suggests the 42,000 included the Canadian border.
MI5 chief Ken McCallum says Iran's UK operations have been nowhere near the drone capability feared at RAF Fairford, where the US pulled its B-1s.
Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have four stories for you this week: the DJI Neo 3 has a video leak, Sky Elements sets a Guinness World Record, the FAA hands out $12 million to drone test sites, and the FBI doubles its counter-drone school capacity.
Laredo's police chief says officers will mitigate drones over the DoubleTree fire. Federal law lets local police do that only with FBI certification.
AeroVironment, Kord, Boeing and Epirus weapons will guard US bases for a year. The FAA safety finding the Pentagon cites covers one laser family.
The military detected 378 drones on the US-Mexico border in a month and says the trend is rising, as 21 firms tested counter-drone gear in Yuma.
US and British officials say a feared IRGC drone attack, which some liken to Ukraine's Spiderweb raid, led the US to pull all 12 B-1s from RAF Fairford.
DOJ's No. 3 says the FBI's Redstone Arsenal counter-drone school will more than double capacity. It is the only gate to new police drone takedown powers.
Almost never. Jamming GPS or control-link signals is federal law under the Communications Act, and only specific federal agencies plus a small number of specially certified state and local officers have any legal path to it. As of the most recent count, only 61 US officers nationwide hold that certification — a bottleneck, not a technology gap.
Detection systems — radar, RF sensors, acoustic tracking — are widely legal and increasingly capable; Duke University has even demonstrated a drone that tracks another drone by sound alone. Disabling a drone is the hard legal problem: jamming is restricted, and kinetic options (nets, interceptors) carry their own airspace and liability risks.
According to NORTHCOM's own deputy commander, not reliably — he has said publicly that the command cannot stop a homeland drone swarm. That is a capability admission from the agency responsible for it, not outside criticism.
Direct provocation. After a cargo drone bomb hit an Antonov's wing at Leipzig and drones repeatedly circled Europe's only Patriot missile repair base, Germany opened a dedicated counter-drone test center — a response to specific incidents rather than a general buildup.
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