FIRST RESPONDERSFirst Responders Put Drones to the Test in Complex Urban Environments
New York City was the backdrop for a third Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) assessment of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) on the “Blue List.” S&T’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) recently evaluated a handful of systems to see if they are up to the task for critical public safety operations.
New York City was the backdrop for a third Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) assessment of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) on the “Blue List.” S&T’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) recently evaluated a handful of systems to see if they are up to the task for critical public safety operations.
On the heels of similar successful drone evaluations in rural Texas and tropical Miami last year, NUSTL once again convened first responders and some of the nation’s preeminent UAS experts to assess a handful of systems currently sanctioned by the military for operational use. Designation on the Blue List deems the platforms cybersecure and compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate whether they can safely and efficiently perform critical public safety missions. That is what NUSTL aimed to find out over the course of three days in late July.
“Amid increasing restrictions on purchasing and operating drones from covered nations, the demand for reliable UAS alternatives manufactured in the United States or by allied nations has never been more urgent. The stakes are especially high in public safety, where first responders rely on these technologies to perform critical operations,” said NUSTL Lab Director Alice Hong. “We designed this assessment to identify potential substitutes from the Blue List that can meet their operational needs, while also identifying opportunities for enhancements to available products to make them more field ready.”
Drones have revolutionized incident response for police, firefighters, search and rescue teams, and other first responders by making their work significantly safer and more effective. They enable real time video sharing with incident commanders, allowing them to assess conditions before responders arrive on scene—reducing risks to their lives from potential hazards. Aerial data from high resolution cameras and thermal imagers can quickly cover expansive areas for situational awareness, search and rescue operations, and other activities. Drones are an enabling capability that our first responders are increasingly reliant on to conduct public safety missions.
This series of test events, conducted by NUSTL’s System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program, is a first-of-its-kind comparative evaluation of how drones perform in various geographic environments, climates, and population densities. The goal this time around was to capture data on how these five systems respond to the unique and demanding conditions that first responders here in New York City and other urban areas contend with.
“New York City has unique complexities that challenge the capabilities of UAS. The urban canyon effect between skyscrapers, underground and elevated public transportation, dense populations, limited line of sight and radiofrequency noise are all factors that can interfere with the usability of UAS during response operations” explained Project Lead Kris Dooley.
First responder participants received hands-on training and support from S&T’s Border Security Solutions Division through Mississippi State University’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory.
“Getting the drone connected, in the air, and maintaining a continual live feed of information is pivotal to response operations. We facilitated activities to replicate this by having responder pilots launch the drones in pockets of open areas, like a park and between skyscrapers. This offered the opportunity to see how the Blue UAS platforms would perform,” said Dooley.
NUSTL data collectors captured participant feedback on key features and capabilities like camera visual acuity, flight duration, command and control link, latency, time to redeploy, and overall ease of use based on their experiences over the course of the assessment.
Test results will clarify which of the drones, if any, meet both cybersecurity requirements and the operational demands of the public safety community. The findings will be made publicly available to guide agency technology purchasing decisions; perhaps equally as important, they will also undoubtedly inform future manufacturer enhancements to these systems to meet responder needs. Results will be published later this year on the SAVER website alongside reports from the previous rural and urban assessments. A comparative report of all three assessments is planned for early 2026.
