The Super Bowl is one of the largest public events to take place in the United States. This year’s matchup, held at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, was attended by more than 65,000 fans, with thousands more enjoying related festivities in and around the stadium. The Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS)program was on-site providing technical support to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to help keep everyone safe from careless, clueless or nefarious Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).
Security for an event like the Super Bowl must be airtight and seamless. Keeping everyone—including spectators, the competing teams, halftime performers, venue staff, media and surrounding establishments—safe is a top priority. No one wants to miss a moment of the festivities, pageantry, and action.
Providing this kind of security requires the professionalism and cooperation of countless local, state and federal agencies, and S&T was a big part of that, supporting USCG as part of a C-UAS team that also included US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) among others.
The FAA estimates that as of this month, more than 1 million UAS (or drones) are registered in the US alone. The overwhelming majority are used for legitimate commercial and recreational purposes. But there is no avoiding that they can also be used for illicit and nefarious means. During the Super Bowl, the FAA designated the Superdome and the area around it as a No-Fly Zone, and this included UAS. However, this did not prevent more than 70 drone operators from attempting to enter the restricted area and approach the stadium. All of these attempts had to be taken seriously and were dealt with appropriately.
The C-UAS team positioned sensors in advance at multiple locations around the Superdome. The sensors provided coverage of the airspace that needed to be monitored, detecting any drones in flight approaching the restricted area.
“S&T provided our team with absolutely essential expertise that allowed us to network a lot of different equipment from different agencies and centrally locate and monitor all of it,” said a USCG representative. “The five different sites that the Coast Guard set up around the city were all networked electronically back to the NFL Security Room. This network arrangement allowed us to monitor in real time exactly what every one of those sensors was detecting and manipulate and control them from the central location.”
When a drone was detected, the first step determined if it was an authorized drone being flown by law enforcement or media covering the game. If not, then the C-UAS team treated it as a potential threat.
“Sometimes we can infer their intent based on the flight pattern, or where they took off from, or where they were intending to go,” said S&T C-UAS program manager Shawn McDonald. “Normally we try to send it home, or fend it off, and see if the operator is going let it land and pack it up. If they keep coming, you know they’re trying to go where they shouldn’t be.”
The team had options for dealing with unauthorized drones. In some instances, they could make the drone fly back to where it launched; the drone pilot would then see the UAS returning to them, and most people get the message and pack up to leave.
Another potential option would be to take control of the UAS. The C-UAS team could fly the drone to its operator, sometimes accompanied by local law enforcement. Or, if there is some concern about whether the UAS has hazardous payload or the pilot is in a crowded area, the C-UAS team could fly it to a pre-selected “safe” area away from people, like an empty field.
Then the drone could be examined without putting any bystanders at risk.
Unique situations also arose during the Super Bowl. For instance, two different attempts were made to fly drones towards the Super Bowl from a large ocean cruise liner docked on the Mississippi River in the French Quarter. The systems detected the drones, and a ground team was able to get over there and interview one of the pilots.
As it turned out, the unauthorized drones during this year’s Super Bowl all fell into the “careless and clueless” category (an unofficial, but common term in the C-UAS world). They were not carrying any dangerous payloads but still had to be kept clear and checked out.
At the end of the day, those attending the big game and the millions watching across the globe had no idea that a very successful collaboration was taking place outside, keeping watch and making sure that it all went off without a hitch to keep the public safe and enjoy the game.
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