Security professionals across every sector seem to be asking the same question this year: what is actually flying over our heads? Madelyne Loftin has spent her career answering that question with sensors, and now she answers it with radar. As System Integrator Partner Specialist at Echodyne, Loftin translates highly technical sensing technology into practical tools that security teams, airspace managers and critical infrastructure owners can actually deploy. Her recent appearance on The Dawn of Autonomy offered a candid look at how radar sensing enables both counter-UAS and drone operational strategies…and why mission-first thinking drives every product decision at Echodyne.
A Sensing Career Led To A Radar Mission
Loftin spent nearly a decade working in drone LiDAR before she made the jump to Echodyne two and a half years ago. She saw a shift coming and moved toward it early. “These drones are going to be a problem,” she recalled thinking. That instinct led her straight to radar and Echodyne, where her own role focuses on partner enablement.
Echodyne builds high performance radar systems. Traditional radar systems carried a reputation for being large, expensive, power hungry and difficult to deploy. Echodyne set out to change that equation with a technology called MESA™, metamaterials electronically scanned array radar, which shrinks a capable radar system down to a size that fits real budgets and real job sites.
The company chose deliberate democratization of a sensor category that once belonged almost exclusively to defense programs with deep pockets. Loftin explained that Echodyne aims to put radar in the hands of “everyday users that might need this technology for either airspace awareness or security purposes,” including drone detection and CUAS at critical infrastructure sites like data centers and energy sites, airplane detection lighting systems (ADLS) at windfarms, and radar-assisted flight beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) for drone as first responder (DFR) programs. Loftin helps companies to integrate Echodyne radars into their larger security and airspace awareness sensor and technology stacks.
Solving the Size, Weight, Power and Cost Problem
Every product decision at Echodyne traces back to a customer’s mission. Each system in the Echodyne lineup fits a distinct operational need – all underpinned by the company’s proprietary design that generates high fidelity, dependable and actionable data.
EchoGuard, the company’s first generation product, handles shorter-range perimeter awareness and tracks roughly twenty targets at a time. EchoShield extends that range nearly three times further and tracks up to a thousand targets, which makes it the system of choice for expansive sites requiring more time response time, defense applications and drone swarm scenarios. EchoFlight shrinks the radar down even further, small enough to mount on an aircraft for detect and avoid missions. It sits between the size of a phone and a tablet once the heat sink is removed.
Loftin noted that customers frequently mix and match these systems rather than choosing just one. Fixed ground sites may pair with Echo Flight units on a drone fleet to give an operator both a stationary perimeter view and airborne detection that travels with the mission.
Behind all three hardware products sits EchoWare, the software layer that turns raw radar data into actionable intelligence. Loftin referred to it as “an enablement software,” built to feed classification data into broader security platforms rather than operate as a closed system. For customers running a video management system (VMS) across a large site, EchoWare becomes the translator that turns a radar detection into a camera cue and, ultimately, a decision a human can act on.
Accuracy As the Backbone of Trust
So what separates one radar system from another? Loftin explained, “Just a single degree of accuracy could equate to a semi-truck difference” when a system is scanning at range. That precision matters because radar rarely works alone. Once the radar detects a target, it typically signals a camera to slew toward that location and confirm what the radar has detected. Without the level of accuracy provided by high-performance radar, a camera can search an entire scene without locking on target at all. .
Loftin pointed to the micro-Doppler signal, the subtle vibration pattern a drone’s rotors create, as one way Echodyne’s systems build confidence in a classification. “We’re able to detect the micro Doppler signal that’s being emitted from the drone,” she said, “and therefore we’re able to say, hey, this is, with a very high level of confidence, a drone.” That confidence lets a security operator act quickly instead of second guessing an alert. It also explains why she said customers consistently praise the systems for being both simple to deploy and accurate and useful during daily operations.
Layered Security in Action: Lessons from FIFA
The recent FIFA World Cup proved to be one of Echodyne’s biggest proving grounds. Loftin described hundreds of drone incursions across dozens of venues, all managed without a major publicized incident. She credited the outcome to teamwork across the industry rather than any single sensor. “It wasn’t one single player that led to the success of FIFA,” she said.
Echodyne radars ran alongside RF detection, remote ID and camera systems as part of multiple partner’s counter-UAS solutions at sites across the country. That layered approach matters most against “dark drones,” aircraft that fly without emitting any signal a remote ID or RF sensor could catch.
“Radar can detect anything that’s in motion,” she said, which makes it a critical, foundational layer in a comprehensive counter-UAS system equipped to detect all airborne threats . She described the FIFA deployment as proof that purpose-built, integrated systems, not any single piece of gear, deliver real security outcomes at scale. And, gives sites confidence their systems are architected for unknown, emerging threats.
Successful overwatch of the tournament, having contained drone activity without a major incident, remains a genuine point of pride for everyone involved.
Critical Infrastructure Wakes Up to the Threat
Loftin said she now sees a clear shift in how commercial and public sector organizations talk about airspace threats. Data center and airport attacks overseas, contraband drops at domestic correctional facilities, and drone incidents at ports have all pushed the conversation well beyond traditional defense circles. A drone incident at any one of these sites – whether clueless, careless, or criminal – may disrupt utilities and necessities for tens of thousands of people. As security professionals consider the cascading consequences of a drone attack, “there’s more blurred lines in terms of defense and critical infrastructure seeking some of the same technologies to protect themselves,” she noted.
In the United States, corrections facilities are on the leading edge of vulnerability. Criminals that drop contraband over prison walls rarely bother with legal compliance, so remote ID and other sensors miss them entirely. And the business of contraband delivery by drone fuels a continuously evolving criminal drone tactics – at night, no-signal-emission, disguised to confuse camera-only detection. Radar detects the motion, regardless of size, approach, velocity.
“Imagine someone’s sitting there watching the security system at their corrections facility,” Loftin explained. “They see a contraband drop. Well, they can remove that contraband before it makes its way into the prison system.” This interception of drugs, phones, money, and more helps prisons maintain safer, healthier institutions.
The lesson from corrections is one that increasingly applies across critical infrastructure: organizations are recognizing that comprehensive airspace awareness, built on high-fidelity radar data, isn’t simply about detecting drones. It’s about creating the time and confidence to make better operational decisions—reducing false alarms, preserving uptime, protecting people and assets, and responding effectively before a drone incident becomes a larger disruption.
“Doing Radar Really Well” & Building To The Future
When asked where Echodyne is headed, Loftin said, “We’re not trying to solve every security issue. We’re just trying to do radar very well.”
That focus shows up in the company’s newest milestone. It just announced opening a roughly 70,000 square foot manufacturing facility near its Kirkland, Washington headquarters. They built it to produce up to 30,000 radars a year once it reaches full capacity. For Loftin, that expansion will answer a demand curve that keeps climbing.
Loftin’s outlook stretches past this year’s headlines. With Part 108 rulemaking on the horizon and drone delivery programs expanding internationally, including medical deliveries carrying organs and blood between hospitals, she expects radar to play an even bigger role in advanced airspace mobility (AAM) operations, general airspace awareness and deconfliction. EchoWare already feeds high accuracy radar track data into unmanned traffic management platforms (UTM). This enables state and local agencies to fly their own drones safely while still distinguishing friendly aircraft from unknown ones.
In closing, Loftin urged security stakeholders to place patience over speed. With FEMA funding expected to flow toward more counter-UAS programs following the FIFA deployment, Loftin encourages organizations to develop a concrete plan that supports today’s needs and tomorrow’s.Security leaders need to think ahead to 2027 and beyond, rather than solving only for today’s threat. With the Los Angeles Olympics approaching in 2028 and Salt Lake City set for 2034, alongside proliferation of drones for good, she envisions years of sustained demand for well-protected and monitored airspace..
From stadiums and data centers to prisons and ports, radar provides the most consistent and reliable sensor of larger, mission-driven systems. Echodyne intends to keep making the radar as accurate and reliant as possible. Echodyne’s worldwide deployments and reputation for delivering accurate, dependable, reliable radar is evidence that they are delivering to their promise, and there appears no sign demand is slowing.