The drone conversation in cybersecurity usually starts and ends with the word “threat.” Someone flies a drone where they shouldn’t, and security teams scramble to understand the risk. But the bigger story is that drones have become essential operational tools for public safety, and the supply chain powering those programs is almost entirely Chinese.
Matt Sloane, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SkyfireAI, has spent 13 years working with over 1,000 public safety agencies to build and operate drone programs. He joined the Security Cocktail Hour to walk through what’s actually happening on the ground: how drone first response works, what counter-UAS mitigation looks like, and why the FCC’s December 2025 ban on new foreign-made drones is both necessary and disruptive.
From “That’s a Toy” to Essential Equipment
When Sloane started working with public safety in 2014, he was duct-taping GoPros to drone frames and pitching agencies that largely dismissed the technology. That shifted dramatically. Today, if a public safety agency doesn’t have a drone program, it’s increasingly viewed as negligent for not deploying a tool that can save lives more efficiently.
Drone first response (DFR) programs are the clearest example. Agencies launch drones from rooftops in response to 911 calls, getting eyes on scene in under three minutes. Chula Vista PD, one of the earliest adopters, has logged over 4,100 responses and 279 arrests, and in more than 1,000 deployments, the drone feed eliminated the need to dispatch a patrol unit entirely.
The FAA’s upcoming Part 108 framework will accelerate this shift. Unlike the current Part 107, which requires a human pilot actively controlling the aircraft, Part 108 is designed around autonomy-first operations with human oversight. That regulatory change unlocks capabilities like multi-drone formations, beyond-line-of-sight operations, and package delivery at scale.
Counter-UAS: “104 Super Bowls in Six Weeks”
The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off this summer with 78 matches across 11 US cities. Federal law enforcement officials describe the counter-UAS challenge as “104 Super Bowls in six weeks.”
Sloane ran counter-UAS overwatch for the Super Bowl in Atlanta. Even with a 30-mile temporary flight restriction and public warnings, his team logged 57 drone incursions over four days. Most were oblivious hobbyists. None were malicious actors. But the volume illustrates why the federal government has committed $875 million in World Cup security grants, including $250 million specifically for counter-UAS.
Until recently, only the FBI, the Department of Energy (over nuclear facilities), and the military had authority to mitigate rogue drones domestically. Congress has now delegated that authority to state and local agencies, with the FBI running a two-week certification program at Redstone Arsenal. The first 17-18 cities are training now.
The mitigation toolbox includes EMPs, signal jamming, interceptor drones carrying nets, and signal takeover. Each option carries tradeoffs. Sloane shared a case where a police drone team lead asked him whether a drone could simply be knocked out of the sky during a high-stakes operation. When Sloane called the FBI and FAA, both agencies independently gave the same answer: “It’s life safety, he’s got to do what he’s got to do. But if it falls out of the sky and hits a bus full of nuns…”
The Chinese Drone Ban Is a Supply Chain Security Problem
On December 22, 2025, the FCC added all foreign-produced drones to its Covered List, blocking new models from receiving the equipment authorizations required for any wireless device sold in the US. Existing models are grandfathered. Current inventory stays on the market. But no next-generation Chinese drones will be authorized for sale.
Sloane was at the White House discussing this issue shortly before our conversation. His concern is practical: roughly 90% of public safety agencies using drones fly Chinese equipment, primarily DJI. If those devices were remotely disabled, American public safety would face a serious capability gap. Remote disabling of equipment has precedent. John Deere remotely shut down stolen tractors in Ukraine in 2022.
DJI filed a lawsuit against the FCC in February 2026, arguing due process violations and a lack of publicly disclosed evidence. That case could take 6-18 months to resolve. In the meantime, American drone manufacturers like Skydio and BRINC are scaling up, but their products carry higher price points. The first conditional FCC approvals for non-Chinese drones were granted on March 18, 2026, to four manufacturers from allied countries.
For cybersecurity professionals, the parallel is direct. This is the same supply chain conversation the industry has had about Huawei in telecommunications, Hikvision in surveillance cameras, and Kaspersky in endpoint security. The question is never whether the technology works. It’s who has the ability to access, modify, or disable it.
Listen to the Full Episode
Matt Sloane covers much more in the full conversation: the evolution of drone sensors (thermal, optical gas imaging, ground penetrating radar, RF detection), FPV drones in Ukraine rewriting military doctrine, indoor tactical drone operations for law enforcement, and why “the drone is like a tractor” and the sensor payload is what actually matters.
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The Security Cocktail Hour is a cybersecurity podcast hosted by Joe Patti and Adam Roth. New episodes publish biweekly.
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