Overview
- Five departments led by a White House task force signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday to create a unified, faster process for testing and deploying counter‑drone technologies.
- The FAA said it will run rapid safety risk assessments of proposed systems and can impose airspace restrictions if needed to protect civilian aircraft.
- FAA official Liam McKenna said the agency has approved more than 1,000 prior coordination requests with the Pentagon and Homeland Security and can turn some reviews around in about 24 hours.
- The MOU covers a range of tools from detection and take‑control systems to jamming and high‑energy lasers, building on earlier, ad hoc uses such as the laser deployment at the southern border that briefly halted El Paso flights.
- Officials say the deal aims to balance faster fielding with aviation safety but the signed document has not been published, so details on how long measures will last and where they will be used remain unresolved.