Critical Infrastructure Security Doesn’t Have Time for False Alarms as the Airspace Gets Busier with Drones

Drones have emerged as the tool of choice for bad actors at critical infrastructure sites. The confusion and damage caused by drone activity is very real, and awareness is growing, thanks to a spate of serious recent incidents that have drawn attention to the threat. Reports in December of unknown drone activity in New Jersey  sparked headlines around the world, and drone incidents also paused air traffic in two states, at an Air Force base in Ohio  and an airport in New York . These, unfortunately, are not isolated incidents.

At Sweden’s Stockholm Arlanda Airport , UAS sightings forced the suspension of air traffic, disrupting operations and endangering travelers. In Nashville, a man reportedly attempted to weaponize a drone with explosives  to collapse the U.S. power grid. It’s clear that drones are no longer a toy and are not restricted to causing annoyances such as disrupting air travel. They present a tangible risk to CI sites and reinforce the necessity for operators to be thoroughly prepared. And along with the uptick in drone sightings, a high volume of false alarms has proven a strain to security infrastructure and response teams.

The issue of false alarms is highlighted by an FBI report into drone sightings in December 2024 , concluding that many had been false alarms, with helicopters, hobbyist drones and even stars mistaken for drone threats. The FBI wrote, “Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”

At the same time, aviation and drone flights are growing rapidly, with the FAA dealing with 45,000 flights per day, and a million drones now registered in the U.S. The skies are a busy place, and traditional ‘2D’ security systems at critical infrastructure sites are struggling to keep up.

Recent Executive Orders, such as ‘Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty’  have highlighted the urgency of dealing with this issue, with the President’s Executive Order noting that, “Critical infrastructure, including military bases, is subject to frequent — and often unidentified — UAS incursions.  Immediate action is needed to ensure American sovereignty over its skies and that its airspace remains safe and secure.”

However, all too often, security teams are expected to deal with these new threats on top of their existing tasks, with teams simply asked to ‘look up’ rather than being augmented with specialist officers with the skills to deal with drone threats. That means already-stretched teams are stretched even further.

As demands for airspace monitoring, deconfliction, and threat management rapidly intensify, technology is becoming the essential bridge between strained security resources and evolving operational needs. Advanced sensor systems are now capable of discerning a broad range of airborne objects—not just aircraft—enabling more accurate identification and prioritization. This capability is vital in reducing false alarms and alleviating the burden on overstretched teams. Traditional perimeter intrusion detection systems (PIDS), while useful, often struggle to differentiate between drones posing real threats to critical infrastructure and benign objects like birds, debris, or weather phenomena. Emerging technologies offer a path forward, enhancing situational awareness and supporting more effective, efficient airspace security.

Cameras and radio frequency (RF) sensors have long played a valuable role in monitoring and securing critical infrastructure—from substations to dams—by providing early detection and situational awareness. However, as airborne threats grow in scale and sophistication, these traditional tools face challenges in reliability, often generating false alarms that burden security teams. Relying solely on optical or RF sensors, or ground-based guards focused on 2D perimeters, is no longer sufficient for addressing the complex dynamics of modern airspace threats. Closing this capability gap requires new technologies purpose-built for the evolving landscape.

Drones are filling the skies at an unprecedented pace, driven by surging adoption in agriculture, infrastructure, and the rapid rise of commercial delivery fleets. Commercial delivery drones are expected to grow at 42.7% CAGR per year from 2025 to 2032, for example .

The FAA has registered 420,825 commercial drones and 383,007 recreational drones in the U.S., with drones used to inspect infrastructure sites sharing the skies with everything from electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) and hobbyist UAVs. Hobbyist drone pilots may operate with good intentions, but their presence near airports, for example, can unintentionally disrupt critical airspace operations. With the FAA recording over 100 drone sightings near U.S. airports each month, the agency is focusing education efforts on recreational users to reduce these incidents and help ensure the safety and reliability of the national airspace system.

Critical infrastructure sites also face the possibility of drones being used for malicious purposes, ranging from espionage to direct attacks. To take one example, Greenpeace flew a Superman-shaped drone  into a nuclear plant in 2018 to show its vulnerability. In such situations, radar sensors can play an important role in providing time-stamped and geo-located evidence for later prosecutions.

Drones can also be a powerful tool for espionage, being able to land unobserved in remote locations, even if there is human security on the ground. From that position, they can probe wireless networks for vulnerabilities. Many locations that have previously been considered ‘secure’, because the idea of a cheap drone with cyber capabilities was science fiction 10 years ago, are now no longer ironclad.

And it is not just remote sites that are vulnerable. Any building that houses computer systems, be that a regional bank or a datacenter hosting cloud-based resources, could potentially be vulnerable to UAV attacks. With many of the services the world relies on, from email to food delivery to internet banking, hosted in server farms, there is vulnerability to small UAVs landing on the roof to tap into networks and breach security systems, or unleashing software to steal trade secrets or simply attack and damage resources.

There are many possible motivations for attackers to target CI locations, from criminal enterprises aiming to steal intellectual property, to state-sponsored espionage and terrorism, to those who seek to cause chaos for its own sake. For such attackers, drones are particularly attractive. They are low-cost, easily and legally accessible, and easy to modify to use as weapons.

In some cases, drones are purpose-built for offensive operations. One illustrative example is the Kalashnikov KUB-UAV, a loitering munition unveiled in 2019. Roughly the size of a coffee table, the drone can fly at speeds up to 80 mph for 30 minutes while carrying a six-pound payload—typically explosives—up to 40 miles. Described by its manufacturer as offering “hidden launch, high accuracy, noiselessness, and ease of handling,” it reflects the increasing sophistication of drone-based weapon systems.

In addition to individual drones, swarming tactics—in which dozens or even hundreds of smaller drones operate in coordination—represent another growing area of concern. These swarms could overwhelm traditional defenses and sensors through sheer volume and maneuverability. A RAND Corporation report  identifies drone swarms as a “current and growing threat,” particularly due to their potential to be used against complex and distributed infrastructure.

In the context of drones operating in shared airspace—whether the pilot is clueless, careless, or criminal—the term “false alarm” is often misunderstood. Many assume that if a detected drone isn’t a direct threat, it must be a false alarm. But that’s not the case.

A robust perimeter intrusion detection system—especially one that covers both ground and air domains—is expected to detect and identify all drones in its vicinity. That includes hobbyist drones, commercial platforms, and potential threats. The goal isn’t to ignore non-threatening drones, but to accurately classify and assess them.

This is why advanced detection, tracking, and classification technology is essential. With the growing diversity of drone makes, models, sizes, and flight behaviors, the ability to distinguish between benign and potentially malicious drones has become increasingly complex—and increasingly critical. Effective classification enables informed decision-making, reduces unnecessary escalations, and ensures that security teams can focus their attention where it matters most.

True false alarms create vulnerabilities for CI security teams, ranging from wasted man-hours to increased operational costs. The most serious of these problems is incident fatigue: if false alarms sound constantly, there is a risk that operators will begin to think, ‘Nothing to worry about, it’s just another false alarm.’ This can lead to delayed response times and, more critically, a gradual desensitization among operators. When genuine threats do arise, the urgency to act may be diminished—resulting in missed opportunities to intervene and exposing the organization to significant financial and reputational risk.

As the operational implications of drone activity become clearer, federal agencies and national security leaders are responding with increased urgency. The FAA, for example, has been testing drone detection systems at airports for several years, and is now expanding these efforts to off-airport locations in New Mexico, North Dakota, and Mississippi. These trials involve hundreds of drones—both commercial and recreational—operating in real-world scenarios, highlighting a shift toward scalable, field-tested solutions for airspace awareness.

This growing investment in detection capabilities reflects mounting concern at the highest levels of government. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaking before a U.S. Senate panel, called the drone threat “steadily escalating,” noting it had intensified following the publicity surrounding the attempted assassination of Venezuelan President Maduro using explosive-laden drones.

Meanwhile, former CISA Assistant Director Brian Harrell offered a blunt assessment as early as 2019: “This is not an emerging threat. This was emerging five years ago. This is here. It is now… The overhead threat for attack is absolutely real today.”

For operators of critical infrastructure, these signals point toward a clear trajectory: drone detection is no longer optional. In the wake of high-profile airport incidents and increasing visibility into the potential for airspace misuse, regulatory expectations are rising, and CI sites should prepare for a future where drone detection and classification are standard components of perimeter security.

While airports have received much of the public and regulatory attention around drone-related false alarms—largely due to high-profile incidents and the obvious risks associated with dense air traffic—they are far from the only critical infrastructure sites affected. In fact, what makes a site vulnerable to false alarms is not just traffic volume, it is proximity to “drone-like” airborne objects, such as birds, balloons, or weather phenomena.

Utilities, energy producers, oil and gas facilities, and nuclear plants have all reported concerns:

• Nuclear Facilities: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has acknowledged the potential threats drones pose to nuclear power plants, emphasizing the need for vigilance and reporting of unauthorized drone sightings.

• Energy Infrastructure: In July 2020, a modified drone was discovered near a Pennsylvania power substation , equipped in a manner suggesting an intent to disrupt operations. This incident marked the first known attempt to target U.S. energy infrastructure using a drone.

• Oil and Gas Platforms: Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority  has urged increased vigilance after unidentified drones were observed near offshore oil and gas installations, warning of potential risks to safety and operations.

These examples demonstrate that the threat—and the potential for false alarms—extends well beyond airports, especially as the skies become increasingly crowded with commercial, recreational, and potentially hostile drones. Addressing this challenge requires precision detection technologies capable of distinguishing real threats from harmless objects across a wide range of environments and operational contexts.

How can critical infrastructure sites respond to the growing challenge of drones? Traditional security systems—designed for ground-level threats—are increasingly outmatched in the face of airborne risks. Most rely on thermal sensors, RF detectors, and human patrols, which are not only vulnerable to false alarms but can also miss or misclassify fast-moving, low-signature aerial objects. Cameras, for instance, often struggle to distinguish between drones and similarly sized objects like birds or debris.

Addressing this modern threat landscape requires a layered approach, combining detection, tracking, and classification with high-performance technology layers that support future-state mitigation. In this framework, advanced drone detection radar systems play a central role—bringing the precision and persistence needed to identify, classify, and respond to airborne intrusions in real time. Unlike conventional radar designed for ground-based movement, modern airspace-focused radar systems are built for high transmit and receive density, allowing them to continuously and precisely interrogate the entire field of view—even in cluttered or obstructed environments.

This enhanced radar capability provides far more than just detection. By analyzing size, speed, altitude, and flight behavior in real time, and when combined with optical and classification capabilities, radar helps operators distinguish between benign activity and true threats—minimizing false alarms and enhancing situational awareness. Crucially, radar performs reliably day or night, in all weather conditions, and does not depend on visible signatures or RF emissions. This makes it especially effective against so-called ‘dark drones’—unmanned systems designed to evade detection by flying silently and without emitting RF signals. These drones are increasingly favored by criminal actors for their ability to bypass traditional surveillance tools such as cameras, RF sensors, and optical systems.

Modern radar systems can track multiple airborne targets at once and leverage micro-Doppler capabilities to detect subtle flight behaviors—such as drones flying in tight formation, loitering in place, or slowly approaching with potential payloads. Additionally, today’s advanced drone detection radar is more compact, affordable, and easily deployable than ever before. Facilities like airports, substations, and water treatment plants can install multiple radar units to create overlapping coverage zones, even in complex layouts.

Other technologies play a valuable supporting role alongside radar, depending on the specific needs and layout of a given site. Optical sensors, such as pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, are especially effective complements to radar, providing visual confirmation and enabling continuous monitoring once a target is detected. Additional sensors—such as thermal imaging systems and RF detection technologies for identifying drones that emit radio signals—can further strengthen the detection stack. When RF signals are catalogued and analyzed, they can also add meaningful value by helping to triangulate or trace the location of a drone’s pilot, offering an additional layer of operational intelligence. Together, these tools provide layered coverage and enhance overall situational awareness.

To move beyond the limitations of conventional perimeter systems, critical infrastructure sites must adopt purpose-built technologies for today’s airspace threats. Advanced radar designed specifically for drone detection is foundational to this shift, offering the precision, speed, and data richness required to manage a modern threat environment.

This level of precision becomes even more important in jurisdictions where mitigation is legal, as safely intercepting or neutralizing a drone demands real-time data on its size, velocity, flight path, and behavior. Only high-performance radar offers the responsiveness and fidelity necessary to inform proportionate, accurate, and legally defensible mitigation tactics.

Reducing False Alarms is Foundational for Modern Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience

For critical infrastructure security operators, the urgency to address false alarms—across personnel, systems, and overall security strategy—has never been greater. Every false positive consumes time, depletes resources, and reduces the impact of active site security efforts. It’s no longer enough to ask whether your PIDS is functioning—it’s time to ask whether it’s keeping up with the reality of today’s threats.

The threat has taken to the skies. Drones have rapidly evolved from hobbyist gadgets into instruments of espionage, disruption, and potential destruction. Site operators, policymakers, and security stakeholders must adapt to this new operational environment—one that demands new rules, new technologies, and new urgency.

A layered perimeter intrusion detection system, anchored with advanced radar that detects, tracks and classifies drones with precision delivers the situational awareness required to cut through the noise, drastically reduce false alarms, and free operators to focus on real threats. In doing so, they not only enhance site security, but also help protect the essential systems our modern world depends on. The path forward is clear: to defend what matters most, we must rise above outdated approaches—and start protecting the airspace as vigorously as we do the ground.