The Department of Homeland Security on Monday mentioned it might make investments $115 million in counter-drone applied sciences to safe the World Cup and occasions marking 250 years of American independence.
The cash will be overseen by a brand new DHS workplace targeted on rapidly shopping for and deploying drone and counter-drone applied sciences.
It’s a giant guess on high-tech instruments for a division beneath stress to safe these high-profile occasions and to additionally meet President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown calls for. The information additionally comes as a response to the growing technological sophistication of drug cartels, which have used their very own drones and cyberattacks to assist ship narcotics and surveil US officers.
“Drones represent the new frontier of American air superiority,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned in a press release.
Cheap and accessible on-line, drones have been a serious safety concern for public security officers for years. A Baltimore man pleaded responsible final yr after flying a drone over M&T Bank Stadium within the metropolis throughout the 2025 NFL playoff sport between the Ravens and Steelers. Separately, a sequence of drone sightings in New Jersey in 2024 raised public alarm and prompted calls from lawmakers for the manager department to get a grip on the issue.
The US co-hosting one of the most important sporting occasions on the planet, the FIFA World Cup, this summer time has intensified stress on federal officers to do extra to stop drones from disrupting proceedings. Eleven US cities will host matches. Over a million worldwide guests are projected to return to the US for the match.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, an element of DHS, final month gave $250 million to 11 states internet hosting World Cup matches to purchase counter-drone know-how.
The drug cartels that the Trump administration have declared terrorist teams have embraced drones for smuggling and surveillance. The risk of equipping drones with deadly weaponry also has experts concerned.
In the struggle in opposition to the cartels, surveillance failures can price lives.
A Mexican drug cartel employed a hacker to surveil the actions of a senior FBI official in Mexico City in 2018 or earlier, gathering data from the town’s digicam system that allowed the cartel to kill potential FBI informants, the Justice Department inspector basic mentioned in a report final yr.