Flying under the radar: Congress is poised to let key counter-drone authorities lapse

On Tuesday, unless Congress acts, America will lose critical counter-drone protections, making it easier for adversaries and criminals to exploit our skies. 

Absent congressional action, the federal government’s ability to mitigate drone threats will be called into legal question, as key authorities lapse.  Should this occur, it will put our nation’s critical infrastructure and American lives at risk by creating an unnecessary gap in the fabric of our nation’s security.

These counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities were granted to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice in 2018 to address proliferating use of commercial and hobby drones and the risk they pose to critical infrastructure, particularly airports. 

In the years since, Congress has wisely extended these authorities, as drone use has exploded. Today there are over one million drones registered with the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. By 2028, that figure is expected to triple. At the same time, the technology and protocols for detecting, interdicting and mitigating UAS has continued to evolve. 

Congress understands the importance of these necessary protections. Just this month, a bipartisan piece of legislation was considered in the House to further expand and refine these authorities to meet evolving threats. This legislation seeks to address the still-nascent challenges of C-UAS mitigation technologies, while also empowering state and local authorities to play a bigger role in drone detection and interdiction.

And yet, the bedrock provisions underpinning these authorities may soon be a national security casualty of an impending government shutdown. We can’t afford to let these protections lapse. The threat is here now. 

Just this week, we saw major airports in Denmark and Norway forced to close due to drones detected in restricted airspace, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers and putting commercial aircraft at risk. Even more concerning is where it’s believed the drones originated. Danish authorities pointed to a sophisticated actor, with later reporting indicating that Russia is believed to be behind the incursions.

There have been other incidents here at home. Close calls between passenger airliners and drones have caused chaos. There was a near midair collision with a passenger jet in Newark in August 2024 when a drone came within 50 feet of a departing airliner. There have since been close calls in Miami, Boston and San Francisco and a case of a drone actually striking a firefighting aircraft during the Palisades Fire in Los Angles.

Last year, the Associated Press analyzed data from NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System and found that drones accounted for nearly two-thirds of reported near midair collisions involving commercial aircraft taking off and landing at the 30 busiest U.S. airports in 2024.

And it isn’t just airports. Consider the U.S. border, for example. The U.S. Air Force General Gregory Guillot, who assumed command of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command in February, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that Mexican cartels are sending as many as 1,000 unmanned drones across the border every month, some carrying narcotics.

Moreover, drones are now a part of modern warfare. We’ve seen them used in armed conflict around the world and we’re seeing them used by everyone from nation-states to hobbyists and oftentimes we may not know the owner or intention until it’s too late. From Ukraine to the Middle East, drones have become central to modern warfare that is cheap, adaptable and deadly. When combined with cyber attacks and traditional weapons, they can cripple defenses in ways the U.S. is unprepared to counter. It’s a twenty-first century reality for which the United States is ill-prepared. 

These authorities protecting the skies have been painstakingly negotiated between relevant committees of jurisdiction on Capitol Hill, among the federal interagency tasked with implementing them and with the collaboration of state and local partners and the private sector. Congress must act now. If these authorities lapse, Americans will be left exposed — our airports, borders, major events and skies vulnerable to adversaries at a time when drones are consistently being used as weapons. 

Frank Cilluffo is the director of the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and host of their Cyber Focus podcast. Klein Klein is the McCrary Institute’s deputy director for policy and partnerships.