The Jacksonville Jaguars take the field before kickoff against the Dallas Cowboys at Wembley Stadium on November 9, 2014 in London.
Getty Images
As the NFL season begins, a new kind of defensive strategy is taking shape: thwarting drone interference.
Last month, the Jacksonville Jaguars became the first NFL team to publicly announce a deal with a drone defense company to protect against disruption and security threats. company, OndusCentrix, owned by , will control the skies in and around Everbank Stadium, home of the Jaguars, on game day.
A Centrix representative told CNBC that the system will be activated for the first time before Sunday’s game between the Jaguars and New England Patriots.
“As drones become more commonplace, we recognized the importance of going beyond detection and adding effective mitigation capabilities to our security strategy,” Bobby Lyle, director of events and facilities security for the Jaguars, said in an August news release.
The NFL, currently in Week 3 of the 2026 regular season, told CNBC that it recorded 10,852 drone violations near stadiums between 2021 and 2025. Only a few of those incidents led to game stoppages.
In 2025, a playoff game between the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers in Baltimore was interrupted by a drone flying overhead. A similar incident occurred at the stadium in 2023.
The league previously had the ability to identify and track drones near its 30 stadiums, but evolving technology now allows it to intercept the communications link between the operator and the drone, gain control and land the aircraft to mitigate the threat.
Centrics said it recently signed deals with two other NFL teams, but CNBC could not confirm which franchises.
Earlier this month, the NFL, along with Major League Baseball, sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security arguing that more resources are needed to protect fans and players from drones during games.
“Unauthorized drone activity presents a continuing and growing challenge,” the letter said.
increasing violations
Sentrycs was one of several companies contracted to stop drones from disrupting this summer’s FIFA World Cup, where 104 games were played in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The FBI reported about 700 instances of drone interceptions during the four-week tournament.
“What surprised us most was the sheer number of drones in the air at once,” said Eric Block, founder and CEO of Ondas.
The federal government provided about $250 million in funding to state and local governments for drone defense before the World Cup. Now, these resources and improvements made in advance of the tournament can benefit other large-scale in-person events such as concerts and festivals.
“A few years ago, no one was worried about this. Now everyone is, and things are moving quickly,” said Jason Moore, general manager for the U.S. and Canada at Centrix.
Drone defense operators must take special classes to become certified through the federal program.
A system requires both hardware and software. Once the equipment is installed, operators detect threats through optical systems that include radar and thermal technology. Sentrycs also uses radio signals for detection.
“This system allows operators to detect the drone, take over control, move it out of the way and land it safely,” Moore said.
The system can also use radio frequencies to locate drone pilots and provide police with their exact location. With officers on patrol, the response time from the moment of discovery to when law enforcement officers arrive at the operator’s scene can be as little as two minutes, Block said.
Some experts cite the threat of civilian drones equipped to transport explosives, chemicals or biological agents, but authorities and defense leaders say the more common risk is nuisance and interference.
“Most of the time, drones are being operated by people who don’t pay attention to the rules or ignore them,” said Christian Brost, general manager of Robinradar USA, which is also contracted to provide drone security assistance during the World Cup.
Robin Radar, headquartered in the Netherlands, operates equipment at 24 airports in Europe. Last year, around a dozen large airports in Europe were forced to temporarily suspend operations due to drone intrusion, according to a European Commission investigation and various media reports.
robin radar system
Source: Robin Radar System
“While most drones have not been deadly, they are still a threat and must be detected and shot down,” said Brost, who served with the U.S. Marines in Iraq during the early stages of the 2003 war and worked on emerging military technologies. “Defeating drones is truly the ultimate team sport. It requires a sensor team, a software team, radar detection, and someone to defeat the attacking drones without hurting anyone on the ground.”
Drones are also becoming an increasingly serious problem for airplane pilots.
Two incidents occurred in busy New York airspace this summer. One is Newark Liberty International Airport; united airlines Pilots reported one drone nearly missing, one near John F. Kennedy International Airport. jet blue The pilot reported colliding with the drone while attempting to land. No injuries were reported in either case.
How drone defense works
One of the challenges facing the drone defense industry is keeping up with rapid advances in technology.
“Fifteen years ago, no one thought you could have small objects flying around without humans,” said Mary Lou Smulders, a longtime drone defense executive turned industry consultant. “The regulations were created for the (Boeing) 747 and 727, passenger planes, not drones.”
That’s starting to change. The Air Safety Act went into effect on July 1 after being passed by Congress in December and signed by President Donald Trump. The law aims to give state and local governments permission to shoot down drones that enter airports and major venues.
Government officials and operators focus on four stages when attempting to crash a drone in restricted airspace, whether the drone operator is at fault or trying to cause trouble. The first is to detect the offending drone.
“If you see it with your eyes before you see it on a radar or sensor screen, it’s already too late,” Smulders said.
Defense teams will then try to identify the drone and determine how fast and at what altitude it is moving. The third stage involves tracking the drone and attempting to contact its operator via radio frequency. The final step is interdiction, or interception of the drone.
Smulders and Brost agree that the easiest and safest way to destroy it is to cut off communication between the operator and the drone itself by turning off the control radio frequencies.
“However, it can cause problems because it can also block legitimate radio frequencies,” Smulders said. “It’s a delicate dance.”
And while most drone defenses rely on radio frequencies, Israeli defense company Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) is developing and selling drone defense technology that allows defenders to shoot drones from the air instead of cutting off communications.
The device, called Abel, fits most automatic weapons, including the AR-15, and helps shooters track, target and eliminate drones with bullets.
The company currently participates in drone defense at 20 airports in Europe and 10 locations in the United States, but IWI declined to comment on the types of facilities or specific locations in the United States where the company operates.
