Throughout 2025, the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) superior key Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Administration priorities by delivering analysis, improvement, testing, and analysis (RDT&E) that accelerated technical options and strengthened our nation’s safety and resilience. To showcase the breadth of the Directorate’s accomplishments, S&T has shared its 2025 S&T Year in Review.
Last 12 months ushered in a renewed emphasis on securing the nation’s borders, and the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) demonstrated its capacity to satisfy that problem. Through targeted analysis, improvement, testing, and analysis efforts, S&T delivered instruments and capabilities that enabled DHS Components to execute their missions extra successfully. These efforts included the event of a next-generation analytics platform designed to boost U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s situational consciousness throughout air and maritime domains, in addition to evaluations of counter–unmanned plane system applied sciences to tell response methods for the U.S. Secret Service, Federal Protective Service, and state and native legislation enforcement dealing with malicious drone exercise.
Beyond border safety, S&T superior efforts to disrupt transnational prison organizations and different illicit exercise. Work in this space included the event of an end-to-end fentanyl provide chain mannequin, the deployment of AI-enabled analytics to speed up investigative processes, and the supply of the Trace Vapor Generator system to enhance fentanyl vapor detection at crime scenes and ports of entry. S&T-developed software program instruments targeted on combating human trafficking have contributed to the rescue of tons of of victims—most of them kids—and supported the dismantling of greater than 35 prison networks.
S&T additionally performed a major function in strengthening the safety of the nation’s vital infrastructure. In collaboration with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, S&T assessed cybersecurity vulnerabilities throughout the nationwide freight rail community and proposed mitigation methods to scale back threat. The directorate additionally printed finest practices for vital infrastructure house owners and operators that depend on Positioning, Navigation, and Timing methods, geared toward defending important providers from GPS jamming and spoofing threats. Given the widespread dependence on GPS throughout sectors, safeguarding this functionality stays a precedence.
Looking forward to 2026, S&T is making ready to help DHS throughout a number of high-profile worldwide occasions, together with the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations and FIFA World Cup matches hosted throughout the United States. Recognizing that such occasions current engaging targets for disruption, S&T is continuous targeted analysis and improvement efforts to assist guarantee public security and safety throughout these nationally important moments.