For years the honest answer to "what can we legally do about drones over our site?" was almost nothing: federal counter-UAS authority sat with a short list of agencies. The C-UAS Interim Final Rule, built out under the SAFER SKIES Act, puts real authority in reach of state and local agencies and critical-infrastructure operators for the first time. It sorts that authority into two tiers, Tier 1, "Detection and Warning," and Tier 2, "Mitigation," and that split is the whole story for a buyer.
The reflex is to shop for the dramatic part: the jammer, the interceptor. I argue the opposite. The rule didn't create one new market. It created two, on very different clocks — and the winning move is to build the fast one first.
Read the rule as two lanes
- Detection and tracking: knowing a drone is there, where it is, and what it is. Passive sensing here sits outside the gated, authorized-equipment machinery: nothing to get listed, no spectrum coordination, no waiver. You can buy, deploy and operate it now.
- Mitigation: interdiction, jamming, takeover, kinetic. This is where the gates live: authorized-systems constraints, coordination requirements, approvals, and the review cycles that come with anything that transmits or brings a drone down. Legitimate, and slow.
Treating them as one line item is how a program stalls for a year on the hard half while the site stays blind.
| Mitigation-first path | Detection-first path | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy today? | No — gated approvals first | Yes — clear to operate now |
| Spectrum / FCC step | Coordination or waiver required | None — passive EO/IR emits nothing |
| Who can buy it | Narrow — authorized operators | Broad — far larger eligible base |
| Time to first value | Procurement + approval cycle | Days to a live picture |
| Builds the case for more? | It is the hard step | Yes — generates the record that justifies mitigation |
| Risk if you wait | — | Every day unprotected is a day of blind sky |
Re-strategy #1 — Lead with detection
You're allowed to deploy detection today. It doesn't need to clear the authorized-equipment process first. While mitigation moves through approvals, detection is already watching the sky, logging incursions, and telling you whether you have the problem you think you have: protection in days, not quarters.
The pool of buyers who can legally operate detection is also far larger than the pool cleared for mitigation. A program that only makes sense once the jammer is approved is fragile; one that delivers value the moment the sensors are up is fundable.
Re-strategy #2 — Go passive
The rule quietly rewards passive detection. Anything that transmits to find a drone, active RF or radar, drags you back toward the gated side and lights up your own position.
Passive electro-optical / infrared emits nothing: no spectrum to license, no signal to coordinate, no beacon announcing where your sensor sits. And it sees what RF-based tools structurally cannot: the autonomous, pre-programmed drone flying with its radio off. A heat signature can't be switched off.
Re-strategy #3 — Detection earns the rest
Detection unlocks everything downstream. Before anyone signs off on the authority to bring a drone down over your site, they'll want to know the threat is real: how often, what pattern, what aircraft, where on the perimeter.
A detection-first program generates that record: every incursion a logged, time-stamped, imagery-backed event, not an operator's word that "we've been seeing drones." The same evidence stands up after an event, when someone asks what you knew and when. Detection is how you get to mitigation.
Re-strategy #4 — Buy layer-ready, speak up
- Buy for the layered end state. Pick a detection layer that hands off a track and a confirmed image to your command system and whatever mitigation you're eventually cleared to run, so the sensor you deploy now feeds the effector later.
- This is an interim rule with a comment window. The agencies are taking public comment before it finalizes. If your operating reality has a wrinkle the rule doesn't handle, now is when that feedback lands.
The move
The rule is the first time many sites can do more than watch. Its fastest, most fundable slice is detection, and the cleanest detection layer is the passive one that emits nothing and still sees the quiet drone. Start there. Build the record. Let it earn the rest.
That's the layer we build. If you're standing up a program under the new framework, we'll show you passive thermal detection on real hardware, with real detections, not a slide: goteam.co.il/management.html
— Baruch
Primary source: “Counter-UAS Authority for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Law Enforcement and Correctional Agencies” — DOJ & DHS Interim Final Rule under the SAFER SKIES Act, 28 CFR Part 124 & 6 CFR Part 124, Federal Register doc. 2026-13609 (91 FR 41466), published July 6, 2026; effective July 1, 2026; comments close September 4, 2026. Note: the detection-tier reading above is GOTEAM's operational interpretation, informed by the Israel-Ohio Technology Engagement Center (IO_TEC) brief, and is written for planning purposes — it is not legal advice. Confirm authorities and equipment eligibility for your specific site and jurisdiction with counsel before you deploy.
Standing up a program under the new rule?
We'll scope a detection-first pilot for your site — passive thermal, live tracks to your hub, layer-ready for whatever you're cleared to add next.