How to Detect Drone Activity: A Guide for Modern Security Teams to Identify and Mitigate Drone Incidents

Protect your airspace. This guide covers how to detect drone activity—which begins with choosing the right drone detection technology for modern security teams.
July 22, 2025 by
Spotter Global, Jamie Mortensen

The Drone Threat is Growing and Here to Stay

Drones have become more than just recreational tools—in more nefarious hands, they’re now used for surveillance, smuggling, disruption, and even cyber threats. If prepared and equipped for the job, even a small recreational drone can do vast amounts of damage with just a short window of time and a small avenue of unprotected airspace by which to approach a sensitive facility. 

This means that for high-value sites, such as airports, correctional facilities, utilities, and other sensitive locations, detecting drone activity is no longer optional.

This guide outlines the primary detection methods security teams rely on and how modern systems like RDID from TheDroneTracker.com bring them together for real-time protection.

Recent Drone Incidents 

  • A man in Toronto, Canada, was arrested for using his drone to spy on two women (July 2025).
  • The FAA reports about 100 sightings of unauthorized drones near airports every month. 
  • A man is being prosecuted for recording aerial drone footage of Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, an important military site, and posting said footage to YouTube (July 2025). 
  •  A man was thwarted by the FBI in his attempt to use an explosive-laden drone to disrupt the Nashville, Tennessee, power grid (November 2025).

Core Methods of Drone Detection

Modern drone detection systems rely on several technologies, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. As with more traditional security measures used to protect against ground threats, CUAS technologies are most powerful when combined into a unified system designed to operate according to a site's particular needs. 

Organizations must consider not only their unique threat envrionments and security needs, but also which detection technologies best support and coordinate the drone threat mitigation methods available to them. 

Some federal agencies are permitted to use lasers, net guns, radio jamming, and other means to combat drone intrusions. Non-federal organizations and individuals cannot use these methods. They must either find a way to hack the drone, taking over its controls electronically, or, alternatively, find and intervene directly with the drone pilot. 

Which Drone Detection Solution Is Best for Your Team? 

1. RF (Radio Frequency) Detection

RF detection monitors the communication signals between a drone and its controller.

  • Identifies nearby drones and controllers in real time

  • Classifies drone type and flight behavior

  • If equipped to track Remote ID, this sensor tracks the pilot's location in real time and captures the drone’s unique federal registration number .

✅ RDID by TheDroneTracker.com uses advanced RF analytics for wide-area, long-range detection—even in complex environments including nearby phone lines, significant local bird activity, and more. Additionally, RDID is a mobile security solution that can be easily carried in and operated from vehicles, set up to protect temporary events like concerts, protests, and parades etc. 

2. Radar Systems

Radar identifies objects by measuring movement and distance.

  • Detects common drones as well as  autonomous or "dark" drones (drones that give off no RF communication signals)

  • Effective over large open spaces and through obscuring weather conditions, such as fog, snow, rain, dust, darkness, etc

    ⚠️ Can misclassify birds or debris when used without target classification software such as Networked IO(NIO). Most effective when used alongside RF or visual systems, especially if not paired with the aforementioned software. 

3. Optical (Camera-Based) Detection

AI-enhanced cameras can visually confirm drone presence.

  • Provides visual verification for alarms

  • Useful for collecting evidence and gathering real-time incident-relevant details about drone targets (i.e., drone size, drone type, payload presence or absence, etc.)

  • When integrated with radar or RDID data, cameras can be automatically cued to current/nearest drone targets, improving situational awareness at the earliest opportunity.

⚠️ Limited by weather, lighting, and line-of-sight. Some come equipped with thermal, night vision, or infrared detection abilities. 

4. Acoustic Sensors

Microphones pick up the unique sound signatures of drone propellers.

  • Works well in quiet areas
  • Passive and simple to deploy

⚠️ Limited range and affected by wind or ambient noise.

Integrate Multiple Sensors 

No single CUAS detection method is perfect. That’s why high-performance systems use sensor fusion—combining RF, radar, optical, and more to provide accurate, real-time detections with fewer false positives.

The Drone Detection System that Supports Drone Mitigation

The best counter-drone technology is the kind you can use reliably and legally. Part of the difficulty with drone security in the United States is that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has set strict limits on which drone mitigation methods can legally be used by non-federal agencies and individuals. 

Private security teams and non-federal law enforcement agencies (state police, city police, etc) are not permitted to use "hard kill" methods against drones, which include shooting down drones with bullets, lasers, net guns, or any other physical attack. They are not permitted to use radio jammers to electronically force drones to land either.

As a result, sensors that can track drones, and only drones, can only be minimally helpful in defending security sites against drone threats.  

Under the current legal circumstances, the most helpful drone detection technology is the kind that allows users to detect and track not just intruding drones but their corresponding drone pilots. Drone operators can be found, reasoned with, and, where necessary, arrested for actions that constitute "reckless endangerment".  

The Advantage of RDID by TheDroneTracker.com

The RDID (Remote Drone ID) is a professional-grade solution built in affiliation with SpotterGlobal, known for its defense and critical infrastructure surveillance technology.

RDID delivers:

  • Long-range RF & Wi-fi signal detection

  • Real-time drone and pilot geolocation

  • Rugged, field-ready hardware

  • Easily deployed as either a fixed, temporary, or mobile security solution
  • Instant alerts to dashboards or mobile devices

  • Seamless integration with broader security systems including: 
    • Command and Control (C2) NIO software
    • PTZ cameras
    • VMS systems
    • AX250 Dome Detection Radars designed for the detection of autonomous, “dark” drone threats

It’s the ideal solution for airports, prisons, utilities, corporate campuses, and events where airspace security is critical.

What about Dark Drones? 

The vast majority of unauthorized drones security personnel have to deal with come from FAA-compliant (at least in terms of Remote ID) "careless and clueless" recreational drone operators, and occasionally a commercial drone goes off course into restricted airspace. While these types of drones can still present a serious threat to safety, they are generally easier to detect, easier to resolve, and pose less of a potential threat. 

Dark drones are another matter. Dark drones emit no radio broadcast signature, Remote ID or otherwise. They're harder to detect, and their presence in restricted airspace is a matter of greater concern, as they are significantly more likely to be flown with nefarious intentions such as conducting illegal surveillance, delivering dangerous payloads, executing proximity-based cyberattacks for corporate espionage purposes, etc. 

One possible multi-layer solution for distinguishing between the different types of rogue drones is to use RDID alongside Spotter Global's AX250 or another non-RDID-based sensor. Any drone target that the the RDID does notpick up on that your non-RDID-based sensors do can, by deduction, be regarded as a dark drone threat requiring greater scrutiny and a stronger response than a lower-level potential threat. 

Protect Your Airspace Before It’s Compromised

Drone threats are growing in scale and sophistication. Without a reliable drone detection system, your team may never see them coming.

With RDID from TheDroneTracker.com, you gain real-time awareness on the drone, the pilot's location, and the confidence to respond before an incident turns into a headline.