How the World Cup became a ‘forcing function’ for drone security

More than 700 illegal drones were downed during this summer’s FIFA World Cup, but industry insiders believe it's just the beginning of an effort to make drone security a big part of public safety.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel said in a video released last month that, while some may have been a “borderline nuisance” and others had “criminal intentions,” they were violating airspace rules formed by the Federal Aviation Administration and so all needed to be removed.

“We don't have the luxury of taking the chance and saying, well, this is probably for a slightly nefarious purpose versus criminal purpose,” Patel said. “If you're in the space, we're going to take you down.”

But beyond the World Cup itself, which went off without any security issues, preparations for the event catalyzed a major investment in counter-drone technology, as well as a better government and law enforcement understanding of what they need to do to protect against unauthorized drones. With more major events to come in the U.S. and big plans for drone use and regulation, the tournament is seen as a major catalyst for further progress.

“It was an amazing forcing function for our industry, but it was not always smooth,” said Rich Fahle, vice president of marketing at drone operations management company Airspace Link. “That said, it's been a net positive in a very big way.”

Concerns, Federal Grants and a ‘Chaotic’ Rollout

In the years leading up to the World Cup, elected officials and public safety leaders consistently named unauthorized drones as one of their big safety and security concerns in the 11 cities due to host games in the United States.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was one of many to sound the alarm. In a 2025 letter to President Donald Trump and several Cabinet members, Hochul called on the federal government to implement a comprehensive strategy on drone detection capabilities, and to give states the authority to detect and mitigate drone threats themselves. States later gained that authority early this year in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Separately, public safety and political leaders warned Congress during hearings of the risks that drones posed to cities’ airspace, especially as they host World Cup games. But amid those warnings, the federal government started to move things along.

It began last year, as President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on drones, one related to airspace sovereignty and another on American drone dominance. Then Congress included $500 million in federal funding in its “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” budget reconciliation law for the new Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Grant Program.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency kicked off that grant program in late 2025 by awarding $250 million to the 11 states that would host World Cup matches, as well as the Washington, D.C. region to assist with security for America’s 250th birthday celebrations. That funding was to pay for states to strengthen their ability to detect, identify, track or mitigate unmanned aircraft systems.

“We knew we needed to act quickly to keep the World Cup safe from the rising threat of unmanned aircraft systems and that’s exactly what we did,” Karen Evans, then-acting FEMA administrator, said in a statement at the time.

However, the start of this year brought a new complication, as the Department of Homeland Security and its constituent agencies — including FEMA — were shut down except for essential duties due to disagreements in Congress over immigration enforcement. The shutdown lasted for 76 days.

With grant funding awarded but unable to be administered due to the shutdown, states and cities were on the back foot and scrambling to acquire the necessary equipment and agreements between agencies, and get everything in place for games to kick off.

“It was a somewhat chaotic rollout,” Fahle said. “I think that was to be expected given the advance and early nature of this technology and how it all works together.”

The World Cup Kicks Off

One city that had something of a head start was Kansas City, which submitted its paperwork to DHS the day before the agency shut down. The city hosted six matches, including a high-profile quarterfinal, but, like many other host cities, had to bring together multiple jurisdictions, including two states; counties and cities; and separate law enforcement and public safety agencies, as well as the federal government.

Having those multiple jurisdictions means they all had their own system to detect drones, so a major point of emphasis for Airspace Link was having what Fahle described as a “single operating picture” giving every agency visibility. And while drones can sometimes be whitelisted to be indicated as non-threatening, there were few such designations this time as organizers took no chances on security.

It was a similar story in other cities, where several turned to counter-drone technology company D-Fend Solutions. The company said its EnforceAir software was deployed “extensively” across a number of cities to monitor airspace, take them over technologically and then land them without any threat to the event.

"Protecting high-stakes events of this magnitude is exactly what our technology is built to do,” Zohar Halachmi, chairman and CEO of D-Fend Solutions, said in a statement. “By providing a non-kinetic, RF cyber-takeover capability, we enabled security professionals to safely mitigate drone risks without disrupting the matches, surrounding critical infrastructure, or vital communications, serving as a trusted foundational layer for operational safety in the security architecture for the world's biggest games."

Local agencies were impressed by the new drone technology, too. In statements released by D-Fend Solutions, Atlanta Police Department Sergeant Kindu Franklin said it “strengthened our ability to detect and respond to unauthorized drone activity." And Lieutenant Justin Bullis from the Cobb County, Georgia Police Department’s Homeland Security Unit said it was a “valuable component of the counter-drone capabilities deployed for this event."

It wasn’t always easy, however. The 76-day DHS shutdown meant cities had to move fast to install equipment and train personnel, sometimes in the final weeks before games kicked off. Fahle noted that guidance to states and localities on how to manage drone traffic is very thin on the ground, while their public safety agencies are not used to managing the skies, as that is the FAA’s purview.

Fahle said it meant the technology companies worked closely with their public sector customers to educate them on what was needed to keep the skies safe.

“This is a brand-new industry; this is an emerging industry,” he said. “It is not clear what the requirements are for safety in the skies. There's certainly an understanding about what detection systems do. But then, how do they all talk to each other? What other things do you need? Who's going to man them? Who's going to own them? These are not departments that exist within most police departments around the country at this point.”

Despite the challenges, and with a big assist from the federal government, the World Cup went off without a security hitch, as hundreds of illegal drones were brought down, with the players, spectators, dignitaries and others seemingly unaware of the massive operation above them.

What Comes Next

Now the World Cup is over, governments and drone companies are looking ahead at the infrastructure they have now built and how it can be used in the future, not just for major events but for everyday tasks like delivery.

Firstly, the remaining tranche of $250 million is set to go out from FEMA, likely for non-World Cup host states, but also with a view to supporting drone traffic in the long-term.

“That $250 million really wasn't just for FIFA,” Fahle said. “Despite the fact that it didn't get fully implemented before the World Cup, its role was never just World Cup safety. It was always about a longer-term infrastructure build.”

Meanwhile, companies are looking to the skies to get their products to customers. Amazon is flying its Prime Air delivery service in Kansas City, while Walmart has plans to expand its drone deliveries, all while law enforcement agencies rely more on drones themselves, including in Drone as First Responder programs.

As with the World Cup, cities must have the ability to monitor everything in their skies, but it’s still very early days with a lot of work to be done.

“You'll walk into a new city, a city that's a top 50 city in the United States, and you'll talk to them, and say, ‘What are you doing about drones?’” Fahle said. “And they'll say, ‘Oh, our police are using drones. It's not me. I don't need to know that.’”

In addition, the regulatory landscape might soon become clearer as rulemaking on flying drones beyond the visual line of sight enters its final phase. The FAA’s public comment period closed several months ago in the effort, which looks to introduce scalable regulations for various drone uses and has long been hailed by the industry as a potentially major step forward.

“Once drones can fly without individual waivers across cities for miles, you get into all sorts of different types of drone use,” Fahle said. “You get into, not just delivery, which is already flying beyond visual line of sight, but you have inspection flights that are not just doing five or six utility poles at a time, but a hundred utility poles at a time. You have blood delivery and organ delivery, you've got farm and crop inspections, and you've got things happening that haven't been able to happen as freely as they should to really unleash this industry.”

Overall, though, the World Cup helped push drones forward in a way that only a major event can.

“The World Cup was, I would say, a smashing success in the sense that it opened the door to this industry in a way that's now moving at a downhill pace rather than like moving boulders, which it's been for the last couple of years,” Fahle said. “I don't think cities understood what role they had to play.”