The NYPD could deploy its first anti-drone defense system in time for major events in the city this summer, including the massive celebration of the country’s 250th birthday in New York Harbor, The Post has learned.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Feb. 10 that federal authorities are preparing to authorize the department to neutralize hostile drones operating in Big Apple airspace. President Trump is expected to give the final OK.
For months now the city has been moving toward adopting anti-drone technology, as the NYPD has been in talks with American Robotics to purchase the Iron Drone Raider, which was first reported by The Post in June.
The system uses “interceptor drones” that hunt hostile drones with radar and fire a lightweight mesh net to entangle the target’s rotors. A parachute then brings the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle down.
Now, the company has even more advanced cyber technology that can take control of the hostile drone and land it, to prevent any collateral damage that could occur if a drone crashed to the ground, said Eric Brock, CEO of Ondas Holdings Inc., which owns American Robotics.
“We see the radio frequency and then we can, essentially, target that radio frequency and make that drone believe that we are the pilot,” Brock said. “So we override the encryption and basically steal the drone.”
Ondas Autonomous Systems
Brock declined to say whether Ondas had inked a deal with New York, but said the company has been “talking to security officials [at] both state and local as well as federal” levels.
“I think that’s actually going to be a really attractive technology for the locations you’re looking at,” Brock said, explaining that cities like New York could “do a layered system” where the first line of defense would be taking over the drone and the second would be the “hard kill with … net interception.”
It’s not clear how much the systems would run the city but the NYPD drones cost between $15,000 and $20,000 each, a law enforcement source said.
The NYPD was recently awarded a $6.5 million Federal Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) grant, a NYPD spokesperson said.
Brock called the FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford New Jersey “the forcing mechanism” the White House is using to “permit these technologies to be deployed because public safety officials need to protect their communities.”
So far, only the FBI has had the power to stop rogue drones.
“The FIFA World Cup is in the summer,” Brock said. “These things have to be ready to be deployed by then. So it’s coming.”
Eight FIFA matches will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey about 10 miles from Midtown, including the tournament final on July 19.
Other potential terror targets this year are the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and the 250th celebration of America’s birth in New York Harbor.
Some in law enforcement urge caution and strong oversight of drone defense tech.
Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and John Jay College of Criminal Justice adjunct professor, worried that something could go wrong.
“It sounds good on paper, and there’s so many reasons why you want to be prepared for this because drones are going to present a huge problem,” Giacalone said, noting that “you can put guns” on them.
“You’re trying to protect, let’s say Times Square, but you also have to remember everybody’s so jammed together taking one of these things down could . . . cause physical injury to people too.”
That’s why it’s important that if cops are using the technology they are closely supervised, according to a veteran NYPD officer.
“Outside the US they’re using these drones to kill innocent civilians,” the officer said, referring to Russian drones in Ukraine. “But we got so many knuckleheads as cops, there should be a lieutenant or a captain overseeing it.”