One Airspace, Two Mandates, Zero Silos
When people ask me what really moves the needle on complex national security challenges, my answer is simple: partnerships with purpose. One of the best examples from my time leading UAS security efforts at CISA was the year we had a senior drone and aviation expert from the FAA detailed directly to my team.
On paper, it looked like a standard interagency detail. In practice, it became one of the most impactful federal partnerships of my career.
Why We Brought FAA Into CISA
We had two core goals.
First, CISA needed a deeper appreciation of the FAA’s mandate: ensuring safety of flight and equitable access to the national airspace. As the drone ecosystem grew more complex, we couldn’t talk about counter‑UAS or airspace protection without understanding the operational realities and constraints faced by the airspace regulator.
Second, FAA needed a clearer window into our world: the national security concerns tied to drones operating over and around critical infrastructure. It’s one thing to read about threats in a report. It’s another to sit across the table from the power plant operator, the airport security director, or the tribal leader who just had a drone incident over their community.
So, we put an FAA expert in the middle of it.
What FAA Gained: Direct Access to the Front Lines
At CISA, we granted our FAA teammate direct access to the critical infrastructure community. No filters. No abstractions.
They traveled to multiple regions with our teams, visiting facilities and listening directly to owners and operators talk about drone incursions—what happened, how they responded, and what it cost them in time, money, and risk. They joined local and regional working groups, built relationships with state, local, and tribal partners, and heard firsthand how drone activity was reshaping their risk calculus.
Just as importantly, they worked side‑by‑side with our cyber and physical security specialists and vulnerability assessment teams. That exposure to CISA’s risk methodologies—how we identify, prioritize, and manage risk across sectors—gave FAA a much richer understanding of what “threat” and “consequence” look like outside of traditional aviation safety.
For FAA, this wasn’t theoretical learning. It was ground truth. It sharpened their view of how drone regulations, safety policies, and airspace access decisions land in the real world of critical infrastructure security.
What CISA Gained: Aviation Safety Is National Security
The benefit was not one‑way.
Our FAA teammate made one point repeatedly: aviation safety is national security. These are not competing priorities; they are mutually reinforcing. That perspective changed the tone of many conversations inside and outside government.
They became a key advisor on CISA’s UAS Security Working Group—over 70 partners spanning federal, state, and local governments; private‑sector critical infrastructure owners and operators; academia; and major trade organizations. In that diverse forum, they were often the calm, reasonable FAA voice explaining the asset security–aviation safety nexus in plain language.
They also led critical engagements with sector risk management agency leaders as we worked to baseline risk criteria for Section 2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016. That effort—defining how and where airspace restrictions should apply to protect key assets—required both national security urgency and aviation safety discipline. Having FAA at the table as a true partner, not just a stakeholder, made all the difference.
Why This Partnership Still Matters
Looking back, having that FAA expert sitting beside me for a year as we tackled the drone problem was a genuine professional pleasure. It stands out as one of the most important partnerships of my federal career.
I’m no longer at CISA, but I’m convinced that—now more than ever—they need a senior, experienced FAA teammate embedded in the mission. The current focus on airspace sovereignty, expanding detection and mitigation capabilities, and increasing American drone dominance only raises the stakes. We cannot afford policy built in silos when drones so clearly blur the lines between safety, security, and economic competitiveness.
The Shared Mission Going Forward
In the end, security and safety professionals share the same purpose: to ensure the safe and secure integration of drones into our national airspace and over our critical infrastructure.
If you’re a leader in government or industry wrestling with drone risk, my advice is straightforward: don’t just coordinate—co‑locate. Put your aviation, security, cyber, and operational experts side‑by‑side. Give them shared problems, shared data, and shared outcomes.
Because when partnerships sit at the same table—literally—the skies get safer, the country gets more secure, and we’re all better prepared for the drone‑enabled future that’s already here.