By Dronelife Features Editor Jim Magill

(Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories on efforts to establish new counter-UAS protocols in the U.S. to protect high-profile sporting events and critical infrastructure from the potential threats posed by drones flown by careless or hostile actors. The first installment examined a government push to expand the authority of state and local law enforcement agencies to take a leading role in ensuring safer skies over World Cup soccer tournament events. This story will focus on how the states of Kansas and Missouri plan to use the funds to finance counter-UAS operations to protect World Cup related events in Kansas City.)

With six World Cup matches slated to be played between June 16 and July 11 in the cross-state border city of Kansas City, Missouri, the neighboring states of Kansas and Missouri are each gearing up efforts to establish counter-UAS operations to protect the matches and associated events from potential disruptions caused by unwanted drone traffic.

Each state will receive a portion of a $250 million grant, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is distributing to 11 states hosting World Cup events and to the National Capital Region (NCR), in association with the nation’s 250 birthday events. Missouri, where most of the World Cup events in the two-state region will be sited, will receive about $14.2 million, while Kansas is earmarked to receive $5.3 million.

In an interview with DroneLife, Murl Riedel, chief of staff of the Kansas Highway Patrol, said the KHP would administer the distribution of grant monies for his state, with $2.5 million going to the Highway Patrol itself, and the remainder of the funding to go to sub-applicants, including the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. 

“We are thankful to the Department of Homeland Security for this funding. And we are also looking forward to working with the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup and the Kansas 2026 host committee and our other partners in the area,” Riedel said.

He said the funding would go toward purchasing counter-UAS technology and training both for the Highway Patrol and for the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. “Kansas City is a border town; it sits on the border of the two states,” Riedel said.

Most of the focus of World Cup events in the region will center around Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs on the Missouri side of the state line. World Cup athletes also are scheduled to train and practice at three designated Team Base Camps in the region: the Compass Minerals Sporting Fields, in Kansas City, Kansas; the KC Current Training Facility in Riverside, Missouri, and Rock Chalk Park at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

In addition, Kansas City, Missouri will host the FIFA Fan Festival™ in association with the soccer tournament. Riedel said the region’s counter-UAS operations “would be set up to support those sites to provide services at those locations.” 

He said the grant supports the installation of both detect-and-identify technology as well as drone mitigation technology designed to bring down UAVs considered to pose an imminent danger to people or property. In order for a grant recipient to quality to deploy the latter type of equipment, its personnel are required to undergo training at the FBI’s National Counter-Unmanned Training Center (NCUTC) in Huntsville, Alabama.

The grant program stipulates that counter-UAS funds may be used to acquire several types of detect-and-identify technologies, including: active radar, passive radar – radio frequency (RF), electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) cameras, EO/IR sensors, RF directional finders, passive acoustic systems and remote ID beacon receivers.

Mitigation equipment and software, such as jammers, spoofers and UAS-intercept technology is also permitted for purchase under the grant, with the stipulation that this equipment “may only be utilized by FBI-trained and certified personnel with an authorized federal agency or department or separately authorized by law,” according to FEMA’s Notice of Funding Opportunity for the grant program.

Although he did not specify what specific type of counter-UAS equipment the KHP would purchase with its grant funds, Riedel said the KHP would have “multiple” officers trained in the use of drone-mitigation equipment in time for the beginning of the World Cup events.

“You can imagine as this grant program was available to all 11 host cities, all of those law enforcement agencies now have the same burden on them to get their people through the training. It’s a big effort to try to train all of those people,” he said.

Although the FEMA grant program is specifically targeted to provide funding to set up counter-UAS operations in time for the World Cup matches and America 250 events, once the infrastructure is in place and the law enforcement officers are trained in its use, those systems will be in place and available for further use to detect and deter rogue drone incursions in the future.

 “We will certainly use this equipment to support the World Cup events. And then we anticipate using these counter-UAS systems in Kansas for other events, whether they are large public gathering events or if there’s something identified related to critical infrastructure,” Riedel said.

Missouri’s portion of the FEMA grant funding would strengthen the state’s “ability to detect, identify, track, or mitigate unmanned aircraft systems, also known as drones,” the Missouri Department of Public Safety said in a recent press release.

“As we plan with our local partners in Kansas City, we are taking into account every potential threat related to World Cup matches and other FIFA-related events. This includes being prepared for potential threats from hostile actors who utilize technology, including unmanned aircraft systems,” DPS Director Mark James is quoted as saying.

“Kansas City will be one of the most exciting destinations in the world for soccer fans next year, and the State of Missouri is working with local officials and law enforcement partners to ensure visitors and residents are safe and secure at FIFA matches, Fan Festival, and all related events,” Governor Mike Kehoe said.

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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.