Jaguars First NFL Team to Deploy Drone Defense Tech — SkimNews
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- Jacksonville Jaguars became the first NFL team to publicly announce a drone defense deal with Ondas-owned Sentrycs, which will activate its system Sunday at EverBank Stadium before the Jaguars' game against the New England Patriots.
- The NFL told CNBC it recorded 10,852 drone violations near stadiums between 2021 and 2025, including a 2025 Ravens-Steelers playoff game in Baltimore that was paused mid-game due to a drone overhead.
- Sentrycs recently signed deals with two other NFL teams (names undisclosed) and was among firms contracted for the FIFA World Cup, where the FBI reported intercepting roughly 700 drones across 104 matches.
- The NFL and MLB jointly sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security this month arguing that unauthorized drone activity presents 'an ongoing and growing challenge' requiring more federal resources.
- The Safer Skies Act, signed by President Trump in December and effective July 1, now authorizes state and local authorities to bring down drones encroaching on airports and major venues.
- Israeli defense firm IWI developed the Arbel — a rifle-mounted device that shoots drones out of the sky — and now operates drone defense at 20 European airports and 10 U.S. sites, declining to disclose specific American locations.
Why it matters: The Jaguars' activation marks the first live deployment of counter-drone tech inside an NFL venue, validating a market the league's own 10,852-violation data set has been building toward for years. With the Safer Skies Act now giving local cops explicit takedown authority and about a dozen European airports already forced to suspend flights, stadiums sit at the intersection of regulation, public safety optics, and a fast-emerging defense industry split between RF takeover systems and kinetic interceptors.
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