The Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Grant Program is the federal government's dedicated funding stream for state, local, Tribal, and territorial drone detection capability. Established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, it provides $500 million across two fiscal years to help SLTT agencies detect, identify, track, and monitor unmanned aircraft. Half of that money is already awarded. The other half is the reason agencies should be preparing right now.
The FY 2026 round moved with unusual speed and unusual focus: $250 million went to the jurisdictions hosting FIFA World Cup and America 250 events. The FY 2027 round opens to every state and territory in the country, and it is the round most agencies will actually compete in. This guide covers how the program is structured, who can apply and how, what the money buys, what FEMA measures applicants against, and what an agency should have in place before the next notice of funding opportunity publishes. We build drone detection systems for agencies navigating this process, and the pattern is consistent: the agencies that win are the ones that prepared before the window opened.
The program was created under Public Law 119-21, Section 90005(a), to enhance SLTT capabilities to detect, identify, track, or monitor unmanned aircraft systems as defined in 49 U.S.C. 44801, consistent with Titles 18 and 49. Its priorities are shaped by Executive Order 14305, Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty, and by recommendations from the White House FIFA World Cup Task Force.
Read the statutory language carefully, because the verbs matter: detect, identify, track, monitor. This is fundamentally a detection funding program. Mitigation appears in the program's performance measures, but tied to federal coordination, and mitigation authority itself remains restricted to federal departments and to agencies certified under the SAFER SKIES framework, which our guide to drone mitigation and authorization covers in detail. For the overwhelming majority of applicants, this grant funds the detection technology layer: RF sensors, radar, cameras, and the command-and-control software that fuses them.
Two funding details matter more than any other. First, the NOFO states plainly that there is no cost share requirement: no local match, no matching funds to identify in a budget request, no council vote to authorize a contribution. Eligible costs are federally funded in full. Second, the program draws a hard line on what the money cannot buy: per FEMA Information Bulletin No. 530, weapons and weapons accessories, including ammunition, are unallowable costs. Indirect costs are also disallowed. This is airspace awareness funding, not armament funding, and the allowable-cost structure reflects that consistently.
FY 2026: $250 million, already awarded. Funding was prioritized for jurisdictions hosting National Special Security Events or SEAR 1 and 2 events. FEMA published the notice of funding opportunity on October 28, 2025, closed applications December 5, and awarded the full $250 million to the 11 World Cup host states and the National Capital Region just 25 days after the deadline, which FEMA described as the fastest grant execution in its history. That speed is itself the lesson: this program does not linger.
FY 2027: $250 million, open to everyone. The remaining $250 million, plus any unallocated FY 2026 funds, goes to all 56 states and territories to build nationwide detection and response capability. Every State Administrative Agency, including the 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, will be eligible to apply. If your agency is not in a World Cup host state, this is your round.
This is the structural detail that catches most agencies off guard. Only State Administrative Agencies may submit applications to FEMA, including applications on behalf of subapplicants. A sheriff's office, a city police department, a corrections agency, or an airport authority cannot apply directly to FEMA. They apply through their state's SAA as a subapplicant.
Eligible subapplicants include local, Tribal, and territorial government entities: law enforcement, fire services, emergency medical services, and other qualifying public safety organizations. Practically, this means the real deadline for a local agency is not FEMA's federal deadline. It is the state's internal deadline, which typically falls well before it, and it means the relationship that matters most is the one with your state homeland security or emergency management grant office. Agencies that introduce themselves to their SAA after the NOFO publishes are already late.
The rule that protects local agencies: 97 percent pass-through. The program does not let states hoard the money. SAAs are required to pass through at least 97 percent of C-UAS funding to local or tribal units of government, and must make those funds available within 45 calendar days of receiving them. States may retain up to 3 percent for management and administration, with one narrow exception allowing a state to keep up to 20 percent, with justification, for equipment or activities benefiting state law enforcement or statewide needs. For a sheriff's office or a corrections agency, this is the most important structural fact in the program: the money is legally obligated to flow down to you, which makes the conversation with your SAA a question of which local projects get funded, not whether local projects get funded.
The FY 2026 notice of funding opportunity published performance measures that tell applicants exactly what the program considers success, and they are unusually specific. Among them: successfully identifying and classifying 90 percent of detected UAS threats, distinguishing commercial, recreational, and potentially malicious aircraft, and launching criminal investigations on 100 percent of identified violations where operators endanger the public or violate airspace restrictions. The NOFO also sets a target allocation for training personnel in the operation of C-UAS technology.
Those measures should shape procurement decisions directly. A 90 percent classification target is a capability requirement, not an aspiration: it argues for multi-sensor fusion rather than a single sensor, because classification confidence comes from corroboration between RF identification and radar tracking. The criminal-investigation measure argues for evidentiary recording, exportable flight histories, and operator localization, since an investigation needs a defensible record. And the training allocation is a reminder that FEMA expects funded systems to be operated competently, not just installed. Our guide to how a drone detection system works covers the architecture that supports each of these.
The program also ties directly into the counter-drone certification framework. Agencies operating detection, tracking, identification, or mitigation technology purchased with C-UAS funds must include proof of registration and, where applicable, certification with their grant application, and FEMA verifies registration with the FBI's National Counter-UAS Training Center. Equipment not in regular use, or used for unauthorized purposes, may be subject to recovery, with grant funds returned. The practical reading: the grant program and the SAFER SKIES certification path are two halves of one federal system, and an agency pursuing funded capability should be pursuing NCUTC certification on the same timeline.
FEMA reviews applications for completeness, adherence to programmatic guidelines, feasibility, and how well the project description and justification address the identified criteria. Three of those four are within an applicant's control long before a NOFO drops.
Justification is where most applications are won or lost, and it is an evidence exercise. An agency that can document actual drone activity, incursion counts, timing patterns, locations, repeat aircraft, is describing a demonstrated threat. An agency describing a general concern about drones is describing a hypothesis. This is the same dynamic driving the FAA's new petition process for drone flight restrictions over critical infrastructure, which also asks applicants to demonstrate specific vulnerability. Agencies already running continuous drone monitoring enter both processes with a data file. Agencies that are not, enter with anecdotes.
Five actions that position an agency for the FY 2027 round:
1. Contact your State Administrative Agency now. Identify the office, the grant manager, and their internal timeline. Ask to be on the distribution list for the next C-UAS notice. This single step separates prepared applicants from surprised ones.
2. Build the threat documentation. Incursion logs, dates, times, locations, and any recorded flight paths. If you have no detection capability yet, even manual incident logs from officers and staff establish a baseline.
3. Define the capability gap in writing. What assets are exposed, what you currently cannot see, and what specific capability closes the gap. This becomes the project description.
4. Scope the system against the performance measures. Classification confidence, evidentiary recording, and operator training are what FEMA measures, so specify a fused multi-sensor system with reporting, not a single sensor.
5. Get a site survey. Terrain, structures, and local RF conditions determine real coverage and therefore real cost. A survey turns a budget number into a defensible figure, which is exactly what feasibility review looks for.
The eligible-subapplicant list maps closely to the facilities facing the most drone pressure. Correctional facilities face contraband delivery as a daily operational problem, and state corrections agencies fall within SLTT eligibility. Airports and public safety agencies protecting them face the incursion risk that shuts runways. Critical infrastructure operated by public entities, along with the law enforcement agencies responsible for events and venues, sit squarely in the program's intent.
Private-sector facilities are not eligible subapplicants, which is worth stating plainly. A privately owned refinery or stadium funds its own detection. What the program changes for them is the environment: as surrounding law enforcement agencies build funded detection and pursue SAFER SKIES certification, the agencies a private facility calls during an incident arrive with more capability than they had a year ago, which makes a private facility's own detection and documentation program considerably more useful.
The defining fact about this program is its pace. FEMA published a NOFO in late October, closed applications in five weeks, and awarded a quarter of a billion dollars 25 days later. Agencies that were not already organized, already in contact with their SAA, and already able to describe their threat picture did not have time to become organized once the window opened.
We believe the agencies that will win FY 2027 funding are doing unglamorous work right now: talking to their state grant office, logging drone sightings, and writing down exactly what they cannot currently see over their facilities. The system specification is the easy part and comes last. The evidence and the relationship come first, and neither can be assembled in five weeks.
Preparing a C-UAS grant application, or building the threat documentation that supports one? Talk to our team about a site survey and system scoping aligned to the program's performance measures.
Related reading:
Drone Detection Technology: The Complete Guide to How It Works
Drone Mitigation: What It Means, Who Can Legally Do It, and How to Get Authorized
The FAA's New No-Drone-Zone Rule: How Facilities Request Flight Restrictions
Drone Monitoring: What Continuous Airspace Awareness Actually Requires