FBI counter-drone training isn’t keeping pace with demand

Overview

The FBI's National Counter-UAS Training Center is expanding capacity and plans to train 250 additional counter-drone mitigation officers by the end of FY2025, bringing total trained personnel to roughly 1,000 over three years. DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is exploring direct funding investments to increase the center's capabilities, and Secretary Mullin has said demand currently outstrips capacity. For contractors this expansion signals growing federal procurement opportunities across counter-drone technology, training services, and related security solutions — demand expected to intensify ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Action is needed now to monitor solicitations, align product and service offerings to agency needs, validate compliance posture, and prepare capture materials and demonstrations. Early engagement, documented past performance, and ready-to-deploy training packages will improve win rates as agencies scale training and mitigation efforts.

Immediate Actions (This Week)

• [ ] Monitor for the official solicitation and program announcements from the FBI and DHS; set saved searches for related solicitations and notices.
• [ ] Update your capability statement and one-page briefs to highlight counter-UAS experience, training services, and readiness to support large-scale officer training efforts.
• [ ] Conduct a rapid internal gap check against the compliance regimes flagged for this event (NIST 800-171 (NIST Special Publication 800-171), CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification), FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program), CJIS Security Policy, ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), EAR) and identify any critical remediation tasks.

Short-Term Actions (30 Days)

• [ ] Assemble a short whitepaper and demo plan that shows how your hardware, software, or training scales to support mass officer training and multi-site deployments; include logistics and instructor augmentation approaches.
• [ ] Configure saved searches and opportunity alerts in your intelligence tooling to track solicitations on SAM.gov (System for Award Management) and the contract vehicles being watched for this event; identify prime contractors and potential teaming partners.

Long-Term Actions (90+ Days)

• [ ] Prepare productionized training packages, course materials, and evaluation metrics that can be rapidly delivered at scale; capture instructor qualification plans and train-the-trainer models.
• [ ] Build or refine capture plans for anticipated awards, including prime/teaming strategies, pricing approaches for multi-year training runs, and performance measurement plans tied to training outcomes.

Compliance Checklist

• [ ] NIST 800-171 — Conduct or update your DoD (Department of Defense)/NIST-aligned gap assessment; prepare System Security Plan (SSP) and POA&M items for controls impacting CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information) handling in training and systems.
• [ ] CMMC — Review your organizational maturity level against CMMC requirements referenced in opportunity solicitations; document practices and policies to support required maturity.
• [ ] FedRAMP — For cloud-hosted training platforms or data services used in federal delivery, confirm authorization level requirements and prepare FedRAMP artifacts if cloud hosting is in-scope.
• [ ] CJIS Security Policy — If training involves access to criminal justice information or law-enforcement systems, verify CJIS compliance for systems, personnel background checks, and data handling.
• [ ] ITAR / EAR — Review export-control classification for any hardware or software that could be controlled; ensure licensing processes are defined for international training deployments or equipment shipments.

Resources

• Internal reference: Secure Operations Guide (/insights/secure-operations-guide)
• Related guides:
• CMMC Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide)
• CUI-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide)
• Agency guidance: Monitor FBI and DHS public announcements and procurement notices for program- and solicitation-level details (FBI and DHS sites).

How Cabrillo Club Automates This

Cabrillo Signals War Room — Already detected this event and delivered this briefing within minutes. War Room will continuously monitor follow-on announcements, regulatory changes, contract vehicle updates, and policy shifts across federal sources so you don’t miss changes to scope, funding signals, or solicitation releases related to counter-UAS training.

Cabrillo Signals Match Engine — Automatically rescales your opportunity pipeline when this event shifts the competitive landscape. Match Engine will rescore opportunities, boost relevance for counter-UAS and training-related opportunities, and surface primes and opportunities that now align more closely with your capabilities.

Cabrillo Signals Intelligence Hub — Tracks affected agencies, NAICS codes, and contract vehicles. Use the Intelligence Hub saved-search feature to get alerts when follow-on solicitations appear on SAM.gov matching this event’s profile (including the contract vehicles listed in event tags). The Hub centralizes agency notices, teaming leads, and historical solicitation trends so you can prioritize capture targets.

Proposal Studio (Proposal OS) — Generates compliance matrices, maintains your win-theme library, and produces first-draft technical approaches using your past performance data. Proposal Studio will assemble initial proposal drafts for training services or technology submissions, pre-populate compliance evidence (for the regimes listed in the event tags), and accelerate bid/no-bid decisions.

Proposal Studio Workflow Tracker — Provides 9-gate capture management from opportunity identification through post-submission. Workflow Tracker will automatically route compliance reviews to contracts and legal, track supplier certifications and export-control checks, and generate audit-ready documentation packages for your proposal submission.

Explore these features to automate monitoring, scoring, capture workstreams, and proposal assembly so you can move from awareness to actionable bids quickly. For playbooks and operational guidance, see the Secure Operations Guide and the related CMMC and CUI resources linked above.