tech
Trump handed cops the power to jam drones. Bad software could ruin it
President Donald Trump spent the last year breaking open a counter-drone system that kept too much authority bottled up in Washington. His June 2025 airspace order pushed federal agencies to build state and local detection capacity and a national training center. In December, he signed the FY2026 defense authorization with the SAFER SKIES Act, giving trained state and local law enforcement new authority to act against drones that pose credible threats.
TL;DR
- President Trump has worked to decentralize counter-drone authority, giving state and local law enforcement more power to act against drone threats.
- The SAFER SKIES Act and a June 2025 airspace order established new protocols for drone detection and response.
- An interim rule effective July 1st implements these laws, requiring training, certified operators, approved technologies, and operational plans.
- The author criticizes the current software for lacking machine-enforceable conditions that link evidence of a threat with the specific authority to act.
- The proposed solution involves a two-key system: verifiable evidence of the target track and a verifiable credential for the operator's authority.
- Software should prevent commands from being executed if they exceed authorized boundaries, such as expired operations, incorrect areas, or stale credentials.
- Decentralizing authority without robust software safeguards makes critical safety measures dependent on human recall under pressure.