Team USA is getting ready to defend its goal against swarming World Cup attackers on the field next month – while Team Fed is deputizing local authorities to fend off swarms of potentially deadly drones in the sky.
The US has appropriated $250 million this year to battle “nefarious and unlawful” drone use.
“Drones are a big threat now. I think they take it very seriously,” said Rep. Robert Aderholdt (R-Alabama), a House Appropriations subcommittee chairman.
“It’s a big deal. We’ve got all of this converging on New Jersey,” added Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.). “It’s a real challenge.”
In June, the FBI opened its new National Counter-UAS Training Center in Huntsville, Ala., where it teaches local law enforcement how to identify and track – as well as “mitigate” – drones, an FBI spokesperson told The Post. That includes taking them out of the sky if necessary.
The two-week course has now schooled 60 locals from each of the 11 World Cup host sites, including from New York and New Jersey.
That includes “hands-on training” and a “capstone field exercises” to build “coordinated counter-drone capability nationwide.”
They will be joined by officials from FBI field offices and the Secret Service to safeguard the tournament action that stretches 39 days.
The government has been doling out millions to protect against the rising threat. Texas just got another $3.2 million to “mitigate unauthorized or potentially dangerous drone activity” and guard crowds and critical infrastructure for matches in Dallas in Houston.
New York and New Jersey are getting $17 million in drone funds to shield MetLife Stadium – home to the July 19 final that will include performances by Madonna and Shakira –– plus fan events in the city.
Officials were cagey about revealing which specific drone-neutralizing weapons will be deployed. Commercial companies offer many options, including drone jammers, “directed energy weapons,” tech that allows the cops to override control of intruder drones, and even defensive drones that fire nets to take out enemy drones.
The feds have their eyes on the skies after Thomas Michael Crooks flew a drone for 11 minutes in Butler, Pa., before shooting and wounding Donald Trump in 2024.
A detection system used by the Secret Service was inoperable at the time, and an agent testified they got only about 30 minutes of initial training, according to a December 2024 House task force report on the assassination attempt.
Drones have also transformed the battlefield in Iran and Ukraine, allowing Iran – with feared proxy “sleeper cells” abroad – to target U.S. allies in the Gulf.
“There’s great counter drone technology that they have that we just have to make sure it gets purchased,” said House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Anthony Garbarino.
