Remote ID-Based Detection Offers Affordable Situational Awareness While Operators Wait for Finalized Federal Drone Restrictions Over Critical Sites
The power plant manager staring at the sky above a substation has a problem. Drones are flying. Some are compliant, broadcasting identification data as federal law requires. Others may not be. That picture is beginning to change. The FAA has proposed long-overdue regulatory protections for critical infrastructure against drone threats. But in the meantime, Black River Systems Company has released SkyHaven, a small, affordable Remote Identification (Remote ID) drone detection device designed specifically for civilian and public-sector use. It listens, legally and continuously, to the Remote ID broadcasts that the FAA requires virtually every commercial drone to transmit. The law already requires drones to announce themselves. SkyHaven makes sure someone is listening.
Remote ID Changes the Calculus
Black River Systems Company is not new to the drone threat problem. The company has spent years developing electronic warfare-grade C-UAS systems, including its Ninja platform, which detects, disrupts, and defeats hostile unmanned aircraft without indiscriminate interference. (See prior AG coverage of Ninja) The company’s C-UAS portfolio employs software-defined radios, advanced signal processing algorithms and sophisticated software architectures in fixed-site, mobile and man-portable configurations.
Those types of full C-UAS systems, that detect, track, identify and especially mitigate drone threats, require specific federal authority to operate. That authority has been historically restricted to a few designated federal agencies. Even state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) law enforcement had no lawful path to counter drones until recent legislative action extended carefully limited detection and mitigation authority to trained and certified officers. Private critical infrastructure operators still remain in a legal gray zone.
Remote ID, however, occupies a different legal space entirely. When a drone pilot registers with the FAA and agrees to the End User License Agreement (EULA) governing their aviation software, whether ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot or a hardware manufacturer’s companion app, they enter into a legally binding contract that governs the use of that technology. Part of that agreement, and of the FAA’s Remote ID rule, obligates compliant drones to broadcast identification data including a unique identifier, GPS location, altitude, velocity and often the pilot’s ground position.
Receiving that publicly broadcast signal does not constitute an interception or surveillance. It involves simply listening to what the law already requires to be transmitted. That is exactly what SkyHaven does. It requires no special federal authorization for a facility operator to deploy it.
“Remote ID provides the basic foundational layer for UAS accountability in the national airspace,” said Dr. Brandy Hill, C-sUAS Customer Experience Manager at Black River Systems Company. “SkyHaven gives non-federal operators a lawful, real-time view of who is flying near their facility. They have not had this capability before, at least at this price point and with this ease of deployment.”
Built for the Field, Not the Lab
Black River Systems designed SkyHaven to be modest in form and laser-focused on specific capabilities. The device measures 5.5 by 5.5 by 3 inches and weighs only one pound. Its weather-resistant High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) enclosure mounts on a ground mast, pole or building exterior. Power and data travel over a single Power over Ethernet (PoE) cable. This means that deployment requires no specialized electrical work. The whole setup takes just minutes.
Its detection range extends up to 6 kilometers in all directions under ideal conditions. The device listens across both 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.X and 5.X protocols, the two transmission standards specified under the FAA’s Remote ID rule. It operates in online or offline modes. This makes it viable in remote infrastructure environments where cellular or broadband connectivity may be limited.
Multiple units can be networked and scaled to cover larger facilities or perimeters. Real-time alerts reach security personnel via SMS and email. Historical detection data is stored and available for analysis to create an audit trail that could prove valuable in regulatory filings, insurance claims or law enforcement referrals.
For users already operating in the military or public safety ecosystem, SkyHaven also offers optional Team Awareness Kit (TAK) connectivity, which integrates detections into the common operating picture (COP) used by defense and emergency management teams.
“The goal was to remove every barrier to deployment,” Dr. Hill noted. “That includes cost, complexity and legal ambiguity. Critical infrastructure operators have been standing on the sidelines of drone awareness for years. SkyHaven now puts them in the game.”
Section 2209 NPRM: Regulatory Window Opened, Not Open Long
The timing of SkyHaven’s availability coincides with one of the most consequential rulemaking moments in the history of UAS airspace management. On May 6, 2026, the FAA released its long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement Section 2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016. The comment window closes July 6, 2026. That leaves little time for stakeholders to shape a rule that could define critical infrastructure airspace protection for the indefinite future.
That legislation, passed a decade ago, directed the FAA to create a process allowing operators of fixed-site facilities, including critical infrastructure, oil refineries, chemical plants and similar assets, to petition for Unmanned Aircraft Flight Restrictions (UAFRs) over their properties. Congress set a 180-day deadline for the FAA to act. It took roughly ten years.
For critical infrastructure operators, that decade of delay has meant a decade of exposure. Energy plants, telecommunications networks, water treatment facilities and transportation hubs are all potential targets for malicious UAS activity, and the threat is not merely hypothetical. Incidents of unauthorized drone flights near critical infrastructure have been reported worldwide, raising concerns about espionage, sabotage and potential attacks. (See prior AG coverage of threats to infrastructure). That reality, combined with a series of recent events that included a 2025 Executive Order that directed the agency to publish the NPRM “promptly,” active conflicts overseas involving drones and several upcoming high visibility events in the U.S. all seem to have broken decade-long logjam.
The proposed rule would establish a new Part 74 in federal aviation regulations and create a formal two-tier structure for UAFRs. Standard UAFRs would designate a volume of airspace, typically capped at 400 feet above ground level and restricted to a facility’s property boundaries, where unauthorized drone operations are generally prohibited. Special UAFRs, reserved for locations with credible safety or security threats, involve stricter access controls and would be typically sponsored by federal intelligence or security agencies. (See prior AG coverage of the 2209 NPRM).
A designated UAFR creates a restriction on drone flight but does not expand counter-UAS authority for private or commercial operators. That limitation underscores why tools like SkyHaven matter so much in the current regulatory environment. A UAFR tells drone operators they cannot fly over a facility. The facility operator must know what is happening in their airspace to report those violations through appropriate channels. SkyHaven tells the facility operator which compliant drones are flying nearby.
Notably, the NPRM also contains an application requirement with direct relevance to SkyHaven. To qualify for a UAFR, facilities must demonstrate the capability to receive and log broadcast Remote ID messages from drones operating nearby. That requirement transforms Remote ID detection from a nice-to-have into a prerequisite for impending regulatory protections.
What SkyHaven Cannot Do; Why That Matters
No honest assessment of Remote ID-based detection would be complete without acknowledging its fundamental limitation. A clueless hobbyist may forget to enable Remote ID. A careless operator may not know it is required. A criminal may deliberately disable it. And a sophisticated adversary, whether a foreign state actor or a domestic bad actor with technical means, will almost certainly not broadcast anything at all. Admittedly, SkyHaven cannot see what does not transmit.
This is not a design flaw. It reflects Black River System’s clear-eyed understanding of legal boundaries. The company has positioned SkyHaven as a situational awareness platform that informs a facility operator what compliant drone activity looks like in the surrounding airspace. That gap, the absence of any Remote ID signal during a known or suspected overflight, constitutes its own type of actionable intelligence that an operator can document and report. SkyHaven’s detection log creates a verified record of all compliant drone activity in the surrounding airspace, a baseline that facility operators, insurers and law enforcement can reference when evaluating any reported incident. Documented anomalies can justify escalation to local law enforcement or the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center tipline, where authorized agencies can then query the FAA’s DiSCVR system to cross-reference Remote ID serial numbers against registration and LAANC data in real time. (See prior AG coverage of DiSCVR).
In other words, SkyHaven provides the legal first layer in what must eventually become a layered defense. Facilities that pair SkyHaven with passive radar or physical security cameras can gain a complementary detection layer for non-emitting drones, and SkyHaven’s optional TAK connectivity allows all of those data streams to feed into a single COP. Stand-alone, SkyHaven provides a key airspace awareness enabler that a facility can deploy today, document with and use to build the operational case for everything that will follow.
Practical First Step for Stakeholders Ready to Act Now
Energy and critical infrastructure operators watching the Section 2209 NPRM process should recognize this moment for what it is. The regulatory architecture for drone restrictions over critical sites is being written. The NPRM’s own application requirements include demonstrated Remote ID sensing capability. That alone makes the case for deploying SkyHaven now rather than later. An operator who can document months of drone detection data around their facility before filing a UAFR petition will be far better positioned than one who cannot.
Additionally, the brief comment period presents a rare and immediate opportunity for energy companies, utilities, pipeline operators, and other critical infrastructure owners to formally petition for inclusion and to shape the eligibility criteria, restriction sizes, and operational conditions that will define the rule’s real-world value. “This proposed rule would give critical infrastructure operators a regulatory voice they have never had before,” Dr. Hill said. Stakeholders who engage now have an outsized opportunity to influence what that process looks like. Organizations that do not engage may find the final rule less accommodating to their specific operational context.
Finally, the Remote ID rule is already in force. That means that compliant drones are broadcasting over pipelines, substations, water treatment plants and logistics hubs across the country right now. Critical infrastructure operators do not need to wait for the 2209 NPRM to conclude, for a final rule to publish or for any further federal action to start building their airspace awareness baseline. SkyHaven simply puts the existing legal framework to work. For a sector that has waited nearly a decade for regulatory clarity, the wait is not over…but the groundwork can absolutely begin today.
For information about SkyHaven, visit skyhavenaware.com or contact Black River Systems Company at info@brsc.com, (315) 368-1890.
Visual assets provided by Black River Systems Corporation.