Pentagon Awards CACI Contract to Deploy SkyValor Counter-Drone System at Southern Border
CACI International received a Pentagon contract to place its SkyValor counter-drone system into full production and deploy it along the U.S. southern border to counter evolving drone threats.
The gist
The Pentagon is deploying CACI’s SkyValor electronic counter-drone system along the southern border to enhance defense against hostile drones.
Continuing coverage
All Security →CACI International announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Pentagon to deploy its SkyValor counter-unmanned aircraft system along the southern border of the United States. This contract marks the transition of SkyValor from testing to full-rate production, although CACI has not revealed the contract's value, the number of units ordered, or specific deployment dates. The move underscores increasing concerns about drone incursions along critical national borders and infrastructure.
SkyValor is designed as a transportable system capable of detecting, tracking, and neutralizing hostile drones. It employs automated sensing technology combined with non-kinetic electronic countermeasures, including features specifically targeting drones controlled via cellular networks. This approach aims to disable unmanned aerial threats with minimal collateral impact, enabling defenders to respond quickly and precisely to emerging drone threats.
Prior to the contract award, the system underwent an operational evaluation at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona. This two-day test was led by Joint Interagency Task Force 401 in coordination with Joint Task Force-Southern Border and Customs and Border Protection. The evaluation tested SkyValor against a variety of drone flight scenarios and assessed its capability to detect, identify, track, and defeat targets at extended ranges. The aim was to improve air domain awareness along the border through enhanced situational understanding and threat defeat.
CACI President and CEO John Mengucci emphasized that the drone threat landscape is evolving rapidly, challenging efforts to protect forces, borders, and essential infrastructure. He highlighted SkyValor's capability to provide early warnings and enable faster, more accurate decisions to defeat hostile drones while keeping unintended impacts to a minimum. However, neither CACI nor the Pentagon has disclosed the precise locations where the system will be deployed or operational details such as whether airspace restrictions or notification procedures for lawful civil operators will be implemented in conjunction with the deployment.
This deployment follows a series of incidents earlier in the year involving the use of counter-drone technologies near the southern border. Notably, in February, Customs and Border Protection personnel near El Paso reportedly engaged what was initially classified as a cartel drone with a laser-based countermeasure, later identified as a balloon. This incident temporarily closed surrounding airspace through FAA action. Additionally, military forces near Fort Hancock, Texas, mistakenly targeted a CBP drone with a high-energy laser in an event attributed to interagency coordination issues.
Following these episodes, the FAA and Pentagon signed an agreement authorizing the operation of high-energy laser counter-drone systems along the southern border, contingent upon a safety assessment ensuring no increased risk to civil aircraft. This approval was informed by a March demonstration at White Sands Missile Range, which established operating controls for these systems. It is important to note that SkyValor’s technology differs, relying on electronic countermeasures rather than directed-energy weapons.
The Pentagon’s push to deploy SkyValor represents a strategic effort to counter increasingly sophisticated unmanned aerial threats using advanced non-kinetic technology that mitigates the risks of damage or collateral effects that can accompany kinetic approaches. How this deployment may reshape border security operations, and whether it will require further regulatory or operational modifications, remains to be seen.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the SkyValor system and what capabilities does it have?
- SkyValor is a transportable counter-unmanned aircraft system that uses automated sensing and non-kinetic electronic countermeasures to detect, track, and defeat hostile drones, including those controlled via cellular networks.
- Where has SkyValor been tested prior to deployment?
- SkyValor underwent a two-day operational evaluation at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, conducted by Joint Interagency Task Force 401 with Joint Task Force-Southern Border and Customs and Border Protection.
- How does SkyValor differ from other counter-drone systems used along the U.S. southern border?
- Unlike high-energy laser counter-drone systems authorized for border use, SkyValor employs electronic countermeasures rather than directed-energy weapons, aiming to neutralize drones with low-to-no collateral impact.
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All Aviation Safety →Oregon launches comprehensive public drone pilot training and testing framework
The Oregon Department of Aviation released a training and testing template July 10 for public agencies that operate drones. This new template provides additional model standards that public agencies may adopt and customize for pilot qualifications, recurrent training and public-safety missions. Training Beyond Part 107 The FAA requires Part 107 certificate holders to complete online recurrent training every 24 calendar months, in an effort to maintain aeronautical knowledge recency. Oregon's document goes further by adding written test questions, practical flight evaluations, emergency drills, airspace-deconfliction exercises, privacy and public-records training, maintenance requirements and launch-decision checklists. "This is the next step in building safe and accountable public agency drone programs in Oregon," Oregon Department of Aviation Director Kenji Sugahara said. "A policy tells an agency what the rules are. Training and testing show whether people can actually apply those rules in the field. That matters when drones are being used near roads, bridges, neighborhoods, emergency scenes, firefighters, patients, helicopters, or disaster areas." Public-Agency Requirements Oregon law already requires public bodies to register public-use drones with the state aviation department and submit annual reports. Those reports must summarize how frequently the aircraft were used, explain the primary purposes of the flights and direct the public to the agency's drone policies. Educational institutions register as drone users rather than registering each aircraft. The template is designed for cities, counties, state agencies, fire departments, emergency managers, transportation departments and other public bodies. Optional sections address Drone as First Responder programs, fire and EMS support, search and rescue, emergency management, mutual aid, remote operations and FAA-authorized flights beyond visual line of sight. The department said the document does not create new flight authority, authorize law enforcement activity or permit operations beyond FAA limits.
Large drone collides with LAPD helicopter over San Fernando Valley, forcing emergency landing
A large drone struck a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter during a patrol over the San Fernando Valley, damaging the aircraft's windshield and forcing the crew to make a precautionary landing. The Airbus AS350 was flying near the 101 Freeway and Reseda Boulevard in Tarzana shortly before 15:00 local time on July 7, 2026, when it collided with the drone, according to the LAPD and a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report. The pilot landed safely at nearby Van Nuys Airport (VNY). Neither of the two officers aboard the helicopter was injured. Authorities described the drone as measuring approximately three feet by three feet, considerably larger than most hobbyist drones. Investigators have not identified its make or model or the person operating it. The collision happened as firefighters battled a brush fire near the Encino Reservoir. An LAPD official said the drone operator may have been attempting to record the fire, although authorities have not determined whether the aircraft was deliberately flown near the helicopter. The FBI and FAA have opened investigations. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the incident "completely unacceptable" and warned drone operators against interfering with police and firefighting aircraft. "This is a warning to anybody who's flying a drone that interferes with Fire or Police: We will find you, you will be arrested, and you will be prosecuted," Bass said. Drones operating near wildfires can put a halt to aerial firefighting operations as crews cannot safely share the airspace with an unidentified aircraft. The FAA generally limits drones to 400 feet above the ground, with additional restrictions around airports and emergency operations. Authorities have not released photographs of the damaged helicopter or video showing the collision. The drone operator remained unidentified as of July 13. The incident is the latest collision involving a drone and a crewed aircraft in US airspace. The FAA receives thousands of reports each year involving drones operating near airplanes and helicopters, although confirmed midair collisions remain relatively rare.
Jeppesen ForeFlight Launches AI-Powered ClearNOTAMs to Simplify Flight Planning
One of the most challenging parts of being a pilot is gathering "all available information before a flight" as required by regulation. This is especially true when it comes to sifting through information dispersed in the form of Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs). Jeppesen ForeFlight is trying to make obtaining and understanding the information easier with ClearNOTAMs, an app that takes the raw NOTAMs, delivered in all capital letters and abbreviations, and decodes them to allow a pilot to sort them by relevance to the flight. According to Cole Crawford, director of product at Jeppesen ForeFlight, ClearNOTAMs provides pilots with an English translation of every NOTAM, while also conveying each one's real operational impact, so the pilot knows what to expect without altering the underlying meaning or fully replacing the original. READ MORE: Tecnam Forms Alliance With Jeppesen ForeFlight READ MORE: Jeppesen ForeFlight Introduces Emergency Glide Mode "ClearNOTAMs helps pilots spend less time deciphering information and more time understanding it," said Crawford in a news release. "By transforming complex NOTAM language into clear, concise summaries, we're making one of the most important parts of flight planning more accessible and actionable." AI Enabled ClearNOTAMs has been in development for a little over a year, according to Crawford, and part of that time was spent making sure the artificial intelligence-powered NOTAM intelligence was up to the task of correctly interpreting and summarizing NOTAM terminology. This includes building extensive automated cross-checks into the system for accuracy to maximize the quality of every translation. The outcome is a plain English summary that becomes the primary text for each NOTAM. In addition, the original coded version may be viewed alongside the translation with just a tap, making it easy for pilots to verify any translation's accuracy and view the original at any time. ClearNOTAMs is available through ForeFlight. The program has customizable filters so the pilot can separate categories such as airport, airspace, runway, etc., or by the NOTAM issuing body such as local or regional. The user can sort the NOTAMs by most recent update and effective time and "pin" specific NOTAMs to the top of the list with a tap, or collapse them with a double tap as they see fit. Three-Month Trial Individual ForeFlight users are invited to test-fly ClearNOTAMs through subscription plans following EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (July 20-26) for a complimentary three-month trial. Following the trial period, the feature will be available only with ForeFlight's Premium plan for individuals, Business Performance for flight departments, and MFB Performance and MFB One for military and government customers. The other user interface enhancements to NOTAMs, such as filtering, sorting, pinning, and collapsing, will be available with all ForeFlight subscription plans.
Vertical Aerospace Delays Valo eVTOL Air Taxi Certification to 2029
American Airlines and other carriers who placed conditional orders for U.K. manufacturer Vertical Aerospace's Valo, an eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) air taxi, will not receive the aircraft until 2029 at the earliest. Vertical—considered the U.K.'s leading air taxi developer by virtue of being one of the only firms conducting routine flight testing—said Monday in a business update that it "re-baselined" its certification program, through which it seeks concurrent Valo type certification from European and American regulators. The new timeline puts certification in 2029, a one-year slip from the 2028 target the company announced in late 2024. "This timeline reflects the rigor of certifying an entirely new class of aircraft under an established regulatory certification framework," the company said in Monday's update. Vertical added that it will discuss certification in more detail at July's Farnborough International Airshow and in an August 13 business update. Vertical unveiled Valo as its flagship air taxi in December. It plans to establish networks across cities such as New York, Miami, and London, ferrying passengers between airports, city centers, hospitals, and event venues. The company is certifying Valo to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) special condition for VTOL (SC-VTOL) standard in the enhanced category, which would permit operations over populated areas. SC-VTOL Enhanced requires manufacturers to meet the same 10 -9 standard—denoting one catastrophic failure per billion flight hours—required of commercial airlines. Michael Cervenka, Vertical's chief commercial and technology officer, in January told FLYING that the FAA will "literally sign the [type] certificate on the same day." The agency will hold small eVTOL air taxis to the lower 10 -8 standard, so Cervenka said achieving concurrent approval will be like "passporting." "That gives us, effectively, a certification moat in Europe, where we're going to be the only aircraft certified to that highest standard, able to fly over populated areas, all the kind of real high value use cases," he said. Vertical had been targeting 2025 certification and entry into service until '23, when it pushed the timeline back to '26. U.S. air taxi manufacturers such as Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation have similarly seen their certification targets slip over the years, in part because the FAA modified the pathway for eVTOL models. Some of them no longer offer firm timelines. Still, a divide is forming between the American and European air taxi manufacturers. Joby and Beta Technologies are already flying conforming, preproduction prototypes—a phase Vertical does not expect to begin until next year. And while the FAA is overseeing expanded testing of precertification air taxis at airports nationwide, the European regulatory environment has been more stringent, leading some of Vertical's competitors to go bankrupt . Illustrating the divide, Beta Technologies has flown electric prototypes across the U.S., Europe, New Zealand, and Japan, while Vertical has been limited to activities at Cotswold Airport (EGBP). The company on Monday said it finally obtained expanded privileges from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that will open up flights away from Cotswold. When Are the Air Taxis Coming? U.S. eVTOL manufacturers toward the beginning of the decade communicated that their aircraft would begin flying passengers in 2024, give or take one year. As that timeline approached, they began to face the realities of type certification and operating at losses, prompting them to revise their expectations. Most recently, Joby gave a target of late 2026 for the launch of commercial air taxi service in Dubai, available on the Uber platform. But that timeline is now in question amid war in the Middle East. It has been a similar story for Vertical. The U.K. manufacturer estimated in September that it would require $700 million to complete Valo's certification. In April, it finalized a financing package worth up to $800 million and achieved Valo's first piloted transition from hover to forward flight and back again. The company is flight testing two prototypes under a CAA permit to fly authorization. American manufacturers have more aircraft in the sky, though, in part due to a crash that Vertical suffered during an uncrewed prototype flight in 2023. The incident permanently grounded the prototype, called the VX4. The company returned to flight testing with a second VX4 in 2024 and in June introduced a third and final prototype. Per Vertical's Flight Plan 2030 vision plan, released in December 2024, the third VX4 was supposed to debut in '25. It is intended to be followed by seven conforming, preproduction aircraft that Vertical will use for certification testing with the CAA. The Flight Plan also targeted the VX4's first piloted transition in 2025, but that did not happen until April. Vertical CEO Stuart Simpson said during an earnings call in May that the milestone came "slightly late" and "nudges up the risk" for certification in 2028. He reiterated that the target "remains absolutely doable" but earlier in the call said it was "under additional risk." In addition to delaying certification to 2029 on Monday, Vertical said it would complete Valo's critical design review (CDR) by the end of the year, a slip from Simpson's previous mid-2026 target. CDR would finalize the air taxi's baseline design and allow Vertical to begin building conforming prototypes for certification testing. Silver Linings Despite the delays, Vertical also announced some progress Monday. Ahead of CDR, it plans to open an assembly facility for early production aircraft in the coming months. By year's end, it aims to activate a battery production plant. Combined with the CAA's expanded permit to fly, those moves will position Vertical for expanded testing once the preproduction aircraft are ready. Vertical also said Monday that propulsion system evaluation for a planned hybrid-electric variant, designed for a range of up to 1,000 miles, is underway on a dedicated test rig. It expects to fly it in the first half of 2027 and announce a long-term turbogenerator supplier this year. It is possible that the hybrid-electric Valo enters service before the passenger air taxi variant. American manufacturers Archer, Joby, and Beta have similarly developed hybrid-electric variants of their flagship models as they pursue earlier opportunities in cargo and defense. In the near term, Vertical could bid for contracts—such as those the aforementioned companies have secured with U.S. military branches—to ease financial stress as it pushes forward with certification. Either way, the U.K. air taxi leader will need to get creative to achieve the goals it set in December 2024. Those include 150 customer deliveries and 200 aircraft produced annually by the end of the decade.
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