The proliferation of drones — offensive and defensive, commercial and militarized — is rapidly changing several critical sectors of everyday life, and that growth has also shone a spotlight on the need to defend against those very developments.

The use of drones (also known as unmanned aerial systems) and their newfound capabilities have left law enforcement and the military scrambling to exceed those advancements with defense systems to stop them.

Recommended Stories

• Hegseth fires director of Defense Intelligence Agency
• Hegseth authorizes National Guard troops to carry service weapons in DC
• Ukraine peace deal on uncertain trajectory after Alaska summit

The Washington Examiner was given an in-person demonstration of that technology by D-Fend Solutions, which focuses on this counter-drone takeover technology. Their primary offer is called EnforceAir and it’s their platform that allows for the operator of the system to identify and track drones, quickly pulling up where it took off from and whether its been modified, before taking over control of the drone at the press of a button.

The Examiner witnessed the tactical EnforceAir UX system, though it comes in different versions including one design that is small enough to fit in a backpack and another that can be put in the back of a vehicle.

China is the leader in the commercial drone market, with a Chinese-based company called DJI Technology Company dominating with a 90% market share of the U.S. commercial drone market. They also are the leading producers of some important drone components including lithium-ion batteries.

The use of drones in conflicts in the Middle East and in the Russia-Ukraine war in recent years has highlighted their proliferation as well as the dangers they pose. Iran provided hundreds of kamikaze drones to Russia that they used to hit residential buildings in Ukraine and helped them begin manufacturing them at home, while Ukraine’s innovation with drones has left even the U.S. seeking assistance from them.

In the Middle East, three U.S. service members were killed and forty others were injured in a surprise drone attack against a U.S. military post in Jordan known as Tower 22 in January 2024.

Closer to home, there were roughly 350 drone incursions at more than 100 U.S. military installations in 2024, NORAD and Northcom chief Gen. Gregory Guillot told lawmakers in February. Those came amid the unidentified drone sightings on the East Coast that perplexed civilians and law enforcement alike.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued an order last month for the military to bolster the manufacturing of drones, to pursue technological advancements in the technology, and for the services to start training with them more to prepare them for what the future battlefield could look like.

The first step in counter-UAS technology is having the ability to detect and track them, while the next major challenge is to safely neutralize any threat.

There are kinetic and non-kinetic options that range from launching projectiles to hit the drones out of the sky, to using electronic frequencies to jam its communications, GPS spoofing its location, or even trying to hack into the system to override the operators’ control of it.

Each method has its benefits and drawbacks depending on the environment the drone is operating in.

Kinetically engaging a drone can only be done if the military or law enforcement personnel are confident that there will be no collateral damage from any shrapnel or debris falling from the sky. So, if a drone poses an active threat in an urban environment, trying to shoot the drone down could result in unintended casualties.

The ability to take control of drones, like in the D-Fend Solutions demonstration, gives law enforcement or the military the opportunity to investigate any risks, mitigate them, and land the drone safely.

The EnforceAir UX system, when operational, detects all the drones that come near the protected area from more than three miles out and can take them over when they come within about half that distance. When the EnforceAir system identifies a drone, the operator will then have the opportunity to determine whether the drone is supposed to be there, like a law enforcement drone, or if it’s a harmless drone operating in space it shouldn’t be, or whether it poses a threat.

If the drone is determined to pose a threat, the operator of the EnforceAir can take over control of it, leaving the operator wondering what happened with no recourse to reassert power.

“It’s overpowering the remote control, and it’s basically cloning the pilot’s remote control into our system and disconnecting the pilot. So what’s happening is the drone thinks our system is now the pilot, the new master,” Themis Tzamarias, an engineer with D-Fend, said during the demonstration.

All commercial drones have a fail safe feature where if it loses communication with the pilot, it’ll return to the home base. Tzamarias said the EnforceAir is able to reprogram where the drone believes its home base is, and thus, they control where it would go if that fail safe mechanism is triggered.

POWELL SIGNALS RATE CUTS ARE COMING

Federal law enforcement under the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security are among their current clients.

The 3rd Infantry Division participated in a training on the technology during Combined Resolve 25-02, a major multinational exercise held at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Hohenfels, Germany, in May.