Who Needs This Data?

The demand for drone tracking data is broad and immediate. SkySafe already serves customers across multiple sectors, and the addressable market is expanding as drone adoption grows.

Airports require drone detection to protect manned aircraft operations. A single unauthorized drone near a runway can shut down operations, causing millions in delays and creating serious safety risks. In December 2018, drone sightings shut down London's Gatwick Airport for 36 hours, cancelling roughly 1,000 flights and stranding 140,000 passengers during peak holiday travel. The perpetrator was never identified. Across Europe, a Euronews investigation found that drone-related airport disruptions quadrupled between 2024 and 2025, covering 24 airports across 12 countries.

Critical infrastructure operators (power plants, substations, water treatment, data centers) face growing drone-based surveillance and attack threats. In 2020, a modified consumer drone trailing a copper wire was used to attempt to short-circuit a power substation in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A joint FBI, DHS, and National Counterterrorism Center bulletin assessed it as the first known instance of a drone being used to deliberately target US energy infrastructure, and warned that such attacks are expected to become more common. In 2023, five drones flew over the Department of Energy's Nevada National Security Site, a facility used for nuclear weapons experiments, and authorities were unable to determine who was behind them.

Correctional facilities are dealing with a surge of drone-based contraband smuggling. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reported 479 drone incidents at federal prisons in 2024, up from 23 in 2018. Criminal organizations earn $10,000 to $50,000 per flight delivering drugs, phones, and weapons over prison walls. In March 2024, Georgia's "Operation Skyhawk" dismantled what authorities called the largest prison smuggling operation in state history, arresting 150 people (including eight corrections officers), seizing 87 drones, and filing over 1,000 criminal charges. Georgia's corrections commissioner has called drone drops "a daily occurrence," and state officials say they lack the legal authority to bring them down.

Military installations and border security operations require comprehensive airspace awareness. In December 2023, swarms of unidentified drones flew over Langley Air Force Base for 17 consecutive nights. Senior commanders scrambled onto rooftops with night vision goggles to observe. NASA deployed a WB-57F high-altitude research aircraft. The Pentagon still has not publicly identified who was responsible. Along the southern border, DHS testimony to Congress revealed that more than 27,000 drones were detected within 500 meters of the US-Mexico border in the last six months of 2024, mostly at night. NORAD's commander estimated roughly 1,000 drone incidents per month along the border.

Stadiums, universities, and event venues face escalating drone incursions during large gatherings. The NFL's chief security officer testified before Congress that unauthorized drone incidents at NFL games surged from 67 in 2018 to 2,845 in 2023. Multiple playoff games have been paused due to drones, including three separate incidents at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore across 2023, 2024, and 2025. In October 2023, a drone over a nationally televised Ohio State-Maryland college football game forced officials to stop play and pull players off the field. The NFL, MLB, NCAA, and NASCAR jointly lobbied Congress for counter-drone authority, leading to the Safer Skies Act passing the House in December 2025 ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Public safety and law enforcement need real-time awareness of drone activity to respond to threats, investigate incidents, and enforce airspace regulations. Today, most agencies have no visibility at all. During the 2025 LA wildfires, a civilian drone collided with a Super Scooper firefighting aircraft, punching a hole in its wing and grounding it for five days while the Palisades Fire continued to spread. In late 2024, mysterious drone sightings across New Jersey triggered weeks of public anxiety, prompting 6,000+ FBI tips, temporary flight restrictions across two states, and laser strikes against aircraft that were actually being mistaken for drones. The episode demonstrated what happens when nobody has reliable information about what's actually in the sky.

Each of these customer segments has specific needs that build on top of a common foundation: large-scale, real-time drone tracking data. That foundation is exactly what FliteGrid provides.

The Timing

Several forces are converging right now:

The FAA Remote ID mandate went into effect in March 2024, creating a legal requirement for every drone to broadcast. The regulatory foundation is in place. Internationally, other similar requirements have been rolled out in Japan, the EU, and other countries. Soon, the need will be worldwide.

The FAA's Part 146 / ADSP framework explicitly defines a role for drone tracking data providers in the national airspace system. The market structure is being built.

Drone adoption continues to accelerate. Major delivery programs (Amazon, Walmart, Wing), commercial inspection operations, and public safety drone programs are all scaling up. Demand for airspace awareness is growing with them.

Public incidents keep raising awareness. Every drone scare, every wildfire interference, every prison contraband delivery reinforces the need for monitoring infrastructure.

And critically, nobody else is building the nationwide receiver network needed to capture this data. The pieces are all in place. The infrastructure just needs to be built.

That's what FliteGrid is for.