FBI launches training center to identify illegal drone activity

The FBI has launched its new National Counter-UAS Training Center, aimed at helping local law enforcement identify, track, and mitigate illegal drone activity across the US.

The FBI’s National Counter-UAS Training Center (NCUTC) is the brainchild of US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order directing its creation on June 6th.

“Unmanned aircrafts are increasingly exploited by criminals, terrorists, and hostile foreign actors – making the counter UAS program a critical area for the FBI to modernize and adapt to stay ahead of the threat,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.

Patel announced the launch on Saturday on X, citing the FBI’s “significant time and resources into developing our counter-drone capabilities.”

He also touted the agency’s “growing coordination with law enforcement” to implement the counter-UAS technology nationwide.

Boosting security at major public events

“Unmanned systems are a defining threat for our time,” said Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, Commander of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, while attending a December 4th meeting of 50 federal agencies to discuss the training initiative.

The program is expected to support preparedness for the upcoming tri-nation-hosted 2026 FIFA World Cup, in which a portion of the games will be held in a dozen US cities, including the cup final at New York-New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.

That preparation will extend to the 2028 Summer Olympics, also to be hosted in Los Angeles.

“They’re evolving quickly, and they’re no longer confined to combat. The use of drones is putting exquisite surveillance and precision strike capability into the hands of individuals and small groups that used to be reserved for our state adversaries,” Ross said.

In the year before Trump took office, unexplained drone activity plagued the skies over the Northeastern coast of the nation, with reports of hovering unmanned aircraft – oftentimes in unnerving clusters – inundating local police, military, government offices, and those of elected officials, almost nightly.

And although one New Jersey lawmaker labeled the months-long UAP phenomenon “a clear and present danger to the United States,” the FBI, Homeland Security, and the US Coast Guard claimed at the time, “We don’t see any concern for public safety,” to the outcry from many local residents.

And then, of course, there are the unmanned Chinese spy balloons that American citizens watched floating aimlessly across entire regions in 2023, also seemingly without explanation from authorities, that have resurfaced this summer.

Detect, identify, track, and mitigate

Already hosting its first class, the center is based at Redstone Arsenal, a major US military installation in Huntsville, Alabama, that hosts not just the FBI, but also NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the US Space Command, and other missile and defense agencies.

The program works with “state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and correctional agencies,” teaching personnel to safely detect, identify, and track – and when legally authorized – mitigate unlawful drone activity.

The FBI Director says the mission is consistent with the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act signed into law this December, calling it “an investment that will pay huge dividends for America’s national security in the years to come.”

Still, critics of the post say the “$500 million” allocated for the program “reeks of bureaucratic bloat,” while another X user calls out the FBI’s “drone crisis” as simply “a phantom menace, manufactured to justify shredding the Fourth Amendment.”

The user claims the NDAA’s “secret rules” allow the FBI to “jam urban signals despite risking 911 outages,” while the FNI indemnity has already contributed to “reckless takedowns” of 19 legal drones, including one medical delivery drone.

According to the Tactics Institute for Security and Counter-Terrorism is an independent think tank based in London. The NCUTC program incorporates:

• Safe detection and tracking of drones using radar, radio frequency sensors, and other technologies.
• Identification of unauthorized drones and threat assessment.
• Legal protocols for intervention, seizure, or neutralization of drones, ensuring compliance with civil liberties and federal law.
• Coordination strategies with local, state, and federal agencies during high-profile events or crisis scenarios.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.