By Dronelife Options Editor Jim Magill
(Editor’s notice: This story is a part of a collection of studies on efforts to determine new counter-UAS protocols within the U.S. to guard high-profile sporting occasions, such because the FIFA World Cup, and important infrastructure from the potential threats posed by drones flown by careless or hostile actors.)
As federal, state and native officers ramp up the counter-UAS capabilities of U.S. cities internet hosting FIFA World Cup occasions, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has positioned its first order for kinetic counter-UAS expertise, a system that deploys UAV-launched nets to soundly carry down hostile drones.
Final month, Lindon, Utah-based Fortem Applied sciences introduced that it had obtained “a multimillion-dollar order from DHS,” to guard U.S. venues on the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup utilizing its net-equipped DroneHunter interceptors which can be designed to soundly seize and take away hostile drones with out creating particles or endangering crowds beneath.
In an electronic mail assertion, Fortem’s CEO Jon Gruen stated along with the DroneHunter interceptors, the DHS order contains the corporate’s TrueView radar items for drone detection and monitoring, and SkyDome command-and-control software program for coordinated, autonomous response. He declined to provide particulars of the transaction, referring such inquiries to DHS. DHS didn’t instantly reply to DroneLife’s request for remark.
Gruen stated that underneath the framework of its contract with DHS, Fortem will present tools, integration, coaching and operational help in coordination with federal, state, native, tribal and territorial (SLTT) stakeholders within the World Cup host cities. “We work intently with related authorities to make sure methods are correctly deployed, personnel are educated, and counter-UAS functionality is totally established prematurely of the occasion,” he stated.
DHS Acquires Kinetic Counter-UAS System
The collection of Fortem’s expertise represents DHS’s first procurement of a kinetic counter-UAS system, Gruen stated.
With greater than 4,500 profitable checks for drone captures, Fortem’s DroneHunter F700s is provided with NetGuns, modular attachments that fireside nets that quickly increase and ensnare their targets.
In accordance with the corporate’s web site, the DroneHunter is able to bringing down each small, commercially obtainable Group-1 drones, generally flown by hobbyists, in addition to the bigger and heavier Group-2 UAVs, extra continuously deployed by legal actors and terrorist teams
The Group-1 drones can by captured by a tether-net related to the F700, which may then carry the ensnared rouge UAV to a protected location. For bigger, heavier drones, the DroneHunter can fireplace off a DrogueChute, a internet related to a drogue, or parachute. “This forces the goal right into a gradual and predictable touchdown, permitting ample time to evacuate the zone beneath,” the corporate states.
The corporate boasts that the DroneHunter is able to mitigating each quadcopters and the quicker fixed-wing drones which may current a problem to infrastructures and other people.
Fortem’s patented net-based seize system is designed to soundly function in crowded city environments, with out the drawbacks posed by different drone-mitigation strategies. Programs that depend on jamming or interfering with a drone’s RF sign can disrupt professional communications and should not work on autonomous drones, whereas kinetic-kill methods that use projectiles to shoot down offending drones can create hazards on the bottom from falling particles.
The Fortem system – composed of the DroneHunter hexacopter interceptors, the ground-based TrueView R30 radar items and the SkyDome command-and-control software program — is designed for fast deployment and may be shortly be moved to guard totally different venues and occasions because the event travels from one host metropolis to a different.
Gruen stated the DHS contract requires the tools to be delivered by Might, to provide safety officers ample time for system setup, integration and coaching forward of the beginning of the FIFA event occasions. “Our focus is making certain full operational readiness effectively prematurely of the June–July match schedule,” he stated.
The FIFA World Cup matches to be held within the U.S. this yr will mark the second time that Fortem expertise has been used to guard the worldwide soccer event occasions. The corporate additionally had supplied counter-UAS options on the in 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
As soon as the World Cup occasions are concluded Gruen stated the DHS will doubtless proceed to deploy the Fortem expertise at future large-scale occasions, such because the America 250 occasions scheduled to happen later this summer season.
“The World Cup deployment displays a broader federal funding in counter-drone functionality forward of each the event and the nation’s 250th anniversary,” he stated. “Extra broadly, we see sustained demand for counter-drone safety at high-profile occasions and important infrastructure, and we are going to proceed supporting approved clients in these environments.”
Extra info on Fortem is out there from their web site.
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based author with virtually a quarter-century of expertise overlaying technical and financial developments within the oil and gasoline business. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P World Platts, Jim started writing about rising applied sciences, corresponding to synthetic intelligence, robots and drones, and the methods through which they’re contributing to our society. Along with DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared within the Houston Chronicle, U.S. Information & World Report, and Unmanned Programs, a publication of the Affiliation for Unmanned Car Programs Worldwide.
