OPINION:
This summer, 16 North American cities will host millions of World Cup attendees. Together, the games will constitute one of the largest mass gatherings on U.S. soil in decades and the most vulnerable domestic target for drone attacks we have ever faced.
As we have seen in recent conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, low-cost, commercially available drones (especially drone swarms) are now capable of precise navigation, autonomous flight and long-range payload delivery. They are inexpensive, accessible and proliferating at a pace that outstrips our domestic defenses.
Because of this, they dramatically increase the risk to soft targets such as an 80,000-seat stadium, an energy grid or a city’s water supply.
The World Cup gives us something rare in national security: a clear date on the calendar. Hosting the World Cup is a key test of our national security. It’s imperative that the U.S. has the right systems in place to safeguard the public. Although counter-drone technology exists, the key issue is whether policymakers will act quickly enough to have them in place.
In 2024, more than 350 drone sightings were reported over U.S. military installations, and more than 1,000 drones crossed our southern border every month carrying narcotics and weapons. Drone incursions also have forced airport shutdowns across the United States, the Middle East and Western Europe.
Recently, severe but temporary airspace restrictions were put into place around El Paso, Texas, because of hostile drone activity from Mexico. In the Middle East, Iran’s recent missile and drone attacks show how easily unmanned systems can probe and overwhelm air defense assets. The threat is no longer theoretical. It is routine.
National defense leaders have taken notice. A Defense Department task force announced in January that the proliferation of drones has “fundamentally and irrevocably changed” the national security landscape, and it granted increased authorities to military bases to counter the threat.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned against “the unsustainable pattern of shooting down increasingly sophisticated, lethal drones … with exquisite multimillion-dollar weapons.”
Civilian agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, also have increased their focus on the sovereignty of our airspace. Recently, the department created an office devoted to rapidly procuring and deploying counter-drone technologies, with more than $100 million in investment to secure America250 and various World Cup venues.
Today’s drones are complex systems that provide immense challenges for which there is no single technology solution. Instead, successfully countering malicious drone activity requires distributed and layered defenses.
Tackling this threat begins with layered detection to determine the appropriate response. The more “eyes in the sky,” the better. Layered detection systems provide advanced visual capabilities by combining radar, electro-optical, infrared and artificial-intelligence-enabled identification to increase early warning.
Much like a fighter jet in traditional air defense, “drone-as-counter-drone” systems can auto-launch from docks, allowing officials to identify suspicious drones and determine next steps quickly.
Eventually, you need to mitigate malicious drones by knocking them out of the sky. The requirements for such weapons sound daunting even by Pentagon standards. They must be nimble, rapidly deployable, safe to operate and devastatingly effective.
Experts have warned about the absurdity of using $1 million missiles to counter $1,000 drones. Modern jammers cannot stop fiber-optic drones with no signal to jam, rendering much of today’s electronic warfare tactics ineffective. What’s more, one-to-one kinetic shots are useless against swarms.
The good news is that technologies to protect American venues and infrastructure, such as air defense systems, do exist. Modern, scalable high-power microwave systems use electromagnetic interference to disable multiple drones simultaneously — instantly, precisely and without risking civilian lives.
These systems are proven. The U.S. Army has deployed them to two combatant commands, and one recently neutralized a 49-drone swarm in live-fire testing and demonstrated the defeat of a fiber-optic-controlled drone.
The U.S. has the capital, partners and expertise to scale counter-drone systems at speed. What holds us back is not feasibility or technology readiness; it is policy and lack of urgency.
Procurement timelines must keep pace with the rapid pace of the drone threat, and rules of engagement for domestic airspace protection must be clarified.
Until this changes, we will continue sidelining technology that can save lives and protect national assets. The hope is that we act before we are forced to learn the lesson the hard way. The clock is ticking.
• The Honorable Chad F. Wolf served as acting secretary of homeland security during President Trump’s first term.
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