Mississippi law enforcement learn how to handle drones for safer Mississippi airspace at Camp Shelby

Federal, state and local law enforcement met with academic groups, infrastructure operators and private company vendors to discuss the different Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), more commonly known as drones. Law enforcement conducted training exercises on handling situations and potential threats involving drones as they become more accessible to the public.  

Robert Eikhoff with Mississippi FBI said law enforcement has a responsibility to know how to handle drones and counter UAS systems to follow the Safer Skies Act.  The Magnolia Crucible held demonstrations for a variety of situations. Eikhoff said the event also gives the FBI a chance to meet with partners to discuss technology and how organizations can work together to mitigate potential threats. 

Eikhoff said that malicious actors have not been a particular problem for Mississippi. Rather, they typically run into citizens with recreational drones flying in restricted airspaces without knowing it. 

“Principally what we see are home hobbyists that just are enjoying playing with the UAS and flying the drone and just making it a recreational hobby that is something that they do for fun,” Eikhoff said. “The problem is that they're doing it and they're not doing it with awareness or education of what the limitations are relative to the areas that they are in.” 

Eikhoff said citizens can find information about restricted airspaces online, as well as training courses for flying and handling drones depending on their sizes.  

General James Hankins with the Mississippi National Guard echoed that the Crucible was important for getting different organizations into the same room. He said by collaborating with law enforcement and vendors, training could be conducted on counter UAS methods and could also be utilized to find gaps in capabilities and learn from them. 

“The innovation cycle is very rapid within this sector, so there's a lot of different capabilities and technologies that are continuously evolving,” Hankins said. “One of the things that we wanted to do is expose soldiers with some of those new technologies and things that are potentially on the horizon.” 

BJ McClenton with the Assure program at Mississippi State University said that the Magnolia Crucible is a good way to promote research and technology of UAS systems and drones, and that it could bring a more positive economic impact to Mississippi than people might think. 

“People don't realize where Mississippi stands as far as aerospace, the industry, the capabilities we have here between Camp Shelby, Stennis, the university, the work that we're doing in the industry,” McClenton said. “So not just research, development, and testing, but the operational side, supporting different types of mission sets and operations through all the programs that we have.” 

The Assure program plays a role in research, testing and development for new drone technology, working under the Federal Aviation Administration.  

Hankins says the intention is to turn Magnolia Crucible into an annual event, eventually bringing in more industries for economic and technological advances to Mississippi.