After drones buzzed bases, five federal departments agreed to field counter-drone systems

Unauthorized drones have been showing up over American military installations, Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., among them, and the federal response had been a patchwork of agencies each holding a piece of the authority. On Monday, Nov. 9, five departments announced a memorandum of understanding meant to replace that patchwork with one process.

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The signatories are the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Homeland Security, Energy and Justice. Their agreement covers how counter-drone tools get tested and put into service on U.S. soil, and it gives the Federal Aviation Administration a formal gatekeeping role.

Five departments and one task force

DefenseScoop reported that the memorandum was led by the White House Task Force to Restore American Airspace Sovereignty, a body created by executive order the year before. The Federal Aviation Administration’s own announcement of the agreement lists the five departments, using the Pentagon’s current styling, the Department of War, and the Transportation Department posted the same text in its briefing room. The text of the memorandum itself has not been made public, so the release and the officials’ statements are the whole record.

Devin Kowalski, assistant director of the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, told DefenseScoop the government is building a counter-drone mitigation plan “for this country that accounts for the worst possible utilization of a drone.” A Pentagon spokesperson added nothing beyond the release.

The FAA’s review step and the interference problem

The agreement’s central mechanism sits with the FAA. Under the release, the agency will quickly review proposed systems and run safety risk assessments to confirm that safety protocols and airspace deconfliction are adequate, share technical data on unsafe conditions and recommend ways to reduce risk. If it decides more mitigation is needed, it can impose its own protective measures, including airspace restrictions. The FAA and the Federal Communications Commission are also named as partners in developing systems that can detect, track, stop or take control of dangerous drones.

The worry behind that step is plain. Officials acknowledged that jamming and similar technologies could disrupt radar, communications and satellite navigation used by commercial aircraft and other transportation assets, and the joint statement promised the tools would not harm aircraft operations or navigation equipment. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the safety of the National Airspace System is the agency’s top priority.

Lasers, cartel drones and an FBI case in the quotes

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pointed to the southern border as proof of concept, saying the department has shown that next-generation counter-drone defenses, including high-energy lasers, can be deployed rapidly and safely alongside civilian aviation. That claim rests on an earlier FAA step: in April 2026 the agency completed a safety assessment of a high-energy laser system and concluded it does not present an increased risk to the flying public, after demonstrations the month before.

The laser record is specific. Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, said at the time that the Defense Department was proving the capabilities safe, effective and ready, and the FAA said it would apply the same assessment approach from the start to systems used inside the country. DroneXL adds field detail: a LOCUST laser fired at Fort Bliss on Feb. 10 at what turned out to be party balloons, and soldiers used it on Feb. 26 at Fort Hancock to destroy a Customs and Border Protection drone, with a joint test at White Sands Missile Range preceding the FAA clearance.

The other secretaries tied the agreement to their own missions. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said it would help counter cartel drone threats along the border, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright stressed protecting energy infrastructure. Attorney General Todd Blanche cited a summer FBI case in which five men were accused of planning explosive-armed drone attacks near a White House event, and FBI Director Kash Patel said agents seized more than 700 drones during the FIFA World Cup.

Money and local police are the next test

The memorandum arrives alongside funding and rules for local agencies, according to a DroneXL summary. A second round of FEMA counter-drone grants totals $250 million, with state filings due by 5 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 16, project selection expected Dec. 2 and awards Dec. 10. Detection and tracking can be bought broadly, while jammers and takeover systems are limited to law enforcement and corrections agencies whose officers are trained, or scheduled to be trained, at the FBI’s National Counter-UAS Training Center.

Since July 1, a local agency that takes down a drone has had to submit an operations plan through a federal portal for FAA airspace coordination, and air traffic control must be told within five minutes of mitigation starting.

Several questions remain open. The memorandum is unpublished, no deadline for the FAA’s reviews appears in the release, and nothing public says which bases will get systems first or how Fort McNair’s incidents were resolved. The first measurable signal will be whether the FAA’s review queue moves as fast as the department secretaries promised.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.