“Meeting the Homeland: Drone Threats, Critical Infrastructure, and Crisis Preparedness” is a scenario-driven after-action report that walks readers through a three-hour counter‑UAS tabletop exercise set in the fictional town of “Minor Spoon,” North Dakota, where coordinated drone swarms strike a university hockey game, an air base, and the regional power grid. The paper distills hard lessons on detection gaps, legal authorities, and operational coordination, offering concrete recommendations for how government, critical infrastructure owners, and community leaders can prepare for and respond to real‑world malicious drone use
Resource Overview
- Scenario-driven after‑action report on a three‑hour counter‑UAS tabletop exercise in the fictional town of “Minor Spoon,” North Dakota.
- Follows coordinated small UAS swarms striking a university hockey game, nearby air base, and regional power grid to stress-test homeland security preparedness.
- Designed for security, policy, and UAS professionals who need a realistic view of domestic drone threats and response gaps.
Key Themes
- Escalating malicious drone use against critical infrastructure, mass gatherings, and defense installations on U.S. soil.
- Persistent detection and airspace awareness challenges, including limited baseline mapping, resource constraints, and legal uncertainty around advanced detection.
- Extremely narrow counter‑UAS authorities, leaving most state, local, and private‑sector entities without clear legal tools to mitigate dangerous drones.
What the Exercise Covered
- Four teams: air base, electric utility, major research university, and city government navigating pre‑attack warnings, active swarms, and next‑day recovery.
- Dynamic decision‑making around emergency response, force protection, crowd safety, information sharing, and continuity of operations.
- Day‑after focus on stabilization, public messaging, oversight and litigation risks, and long‑term rebuilding and rebranding.
Why This Resource Matters
- Shows why strong counter‑drone measures are essential to any serious domestic drone growth strategy—not a barrier to commercial UAS, but an enabler of safe expansion.
- Demonstrates how integrating C‑UAS into core security and crisis management planning can reduce casualties, protect infrastructure, and speed recovery.
- Offers actionable recommendations for expanding resources, authorities, education, and planning across government and industry.
Authorship and Collaborators
- Developed by three subject‑matter experts from Venable LLP, with contributions spanning homeland security, technology policy, and crisis management.
- Created in close collaboration with P3 Tech Consulting and GrandSKY, bringing together legal, operational, and test‑range perspectives on real‑world counter‑UAS implementation.
- Positioned as a must‑read resource for policymakers, critical infrastructure owners, law enforcement, and UAS ecosystem leaders building resilience against emerging drone threats.
