Dell Cameron Maddy Varner Security May 13, 2026 3:03 PM DHS Plans Experiment Running ‘Reconnaissance’ Drones Along the US-Canada Border Autonomous drones and ground vehicles will stream “battlefield intelligence” over 5G along the US-Canada border in a bilateral DHS experiment this fall. Photograph: David Ryder/Bloomberg/Getty Images Save this story Save this story The US Department of Homeland Security , in collaboration with the Defense Research and Development Canada, is looking to send autonomous drones and vehicles along the US-Canada border this fall, testing which products can stream surveillance video and sensor data between the two countries using commercial 5G networks. A new DHS call for participants frames the experiment, known as ACE-CASPER, as a multiday exercise “simulating a national emergency response scenario,” with drones and ground vehicles relaying live feeds to a bi-national command-and-control center as they cross the border. Vehicle autonomy, the document notes, is secondary to its primary aim: demonstrating “resilient, persistent 5G communications.” DHS and DRDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Scheduled for November, the tests would be the first joint US-Canada cross-border technology experiment along their shared border in nearly a decade. From 2011 through 2017, the two governments staged five cross-border drills under a program called CAUSE , testing whether emergency responders on either side of the line could share radios, video, and data with their counterparts across the border. While couched in public safety, search and rescue, and emergency response, DHS describes many of the capabilities the experiment will exercise in martial terms, asking vendors to demonstrate, for instance, the ability of autonomous vehicles to gather “real-time battlefield intelligence.” The sought-after aerial systems are described as “Command and Control: Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance” platforms—or C2ISR—an acronym borrowed from the US Department of Defense , linked to the improvement of “kill chains.” DHS announced the drone trials through government procurement channels by the department’s research and development branch, the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with Defense Research and Development Canada, its northern counterpart. The directorate sits at the technical center of the US federal government's domestic counter-drone program following restructuring under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in 2025. Last week, S&T's National Urban Security Technology Laboratory launched a counter-drone purchasing tool , designed to guide police and emergency-response agencies in the Washington, DC, region—and the 11 US states hosting FIFA World Cup matches this summer. The same executive-order package also prioritized procurement of American-made drones and reserved government contract opportunities for domestic manufacturers—a major market opening for the US drone industry, further widened by a recent Federal Communications Commission designation that bars new foreign-made drones from US wireless networks. Any universe of companies positioned to respond to the call for the November trials would include multiple vendors with ties to the president’s elder adult sons. Powerus Corporation, the Florida-based drone manufacturer that recently merged with a golf course company that has backing from Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., is one. Anduril Industries , in which Trump Jr.'s own firm invested last year , produces a suite of drones geared toward battlefield surveillance for the Pentagon, while holding DHS’s largest border-security contract: a $1.1 billion agreement to deploy AI-powered surveillance towers along the southern border. “Powerus welcomes any effort by DHS to strengthen border security through advanced autonomous systems,” Powerus cofounder Brett Velicovich tells WIRED. “Protecting American borders is exactly the mission our technology was built for, and we're encouraged to see the government moving urgently in this direction.​” Unusual Machines, an Orlando, Florida, drone-components maker where Trump Jr. previously served as adviser and received stock that is worth roughly $4.4 million today, does not sell directly to the government, a company spokesperson tells WIRED, but does sell to suppliers who do. Xtend, the Israeli drone maker now backed by Eric Trump , also opened a Tampa, Florida, headquarters in summer 2025 and announced a multimillion-dollar contract from a Pentagon special-operations office last fall. Xtend declined WIRED’s request for comment. Comments Back to top You Might Also Like How to find us: Add WIRED.com to your preferred sources in Google How the Canvas hack threatened thousands of schools Big Story: I've covered robots for years— this one is eerily lifelike Orbs, saucers, and flashes on the moon—here’s what’s in the UFO files Take our survey: What does “home” mean to you? Dell Cameron is an investigative reporter from Texas covering privacy and national security. He's the recipient of multiple Society of Professional Journalists awards and is co-recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting. Previously, he was a senior reporter at Gizmodo and a staff writer for the Daily ... Read More Senior Reporter, National Security Maddy Varner is a senior reporter for WIRED. In the past, she was an investigative data journalist at The Markup, where she brought numbers to stories about labor, education and politics. Before The Markup, she was a researcher at ProPublica, where she was on a team that won a Loeb ... Read More Senior Writer, Investigations Topics Department of Homeland Security drones surveillance artificial intelligence Canada military tech Read More Congress Turns Up Pressure on DHS Over Palantir’s Role in Immigration Crackdown Democrats are demanding answers about Palantir and other surveillance firms powering Trump’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda. Caroline Haskins Hackable Robot Lawn Mower Unlocks a New Nightmare Plus: Meta officially kills encrypted Instagram DMs, the Trump administration targets “violent left wing extremists,” leaked documents reveal Russia's school for elite hackers, and more. 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