This summer’s World Cup in the United States could very well be the biggest proving ground for Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” and a showcase for a host of sophisticated new surveillance technologies, including facial recognition — a boon for defense contractors who are jockeying to get a piece of a federal pie that is billions of dollars in the making.
An undertaking akin to multiple Super Bowls in scope, the World Cup will soon draw millions of soccer fans from around the world to the United States. It is only the second time in history that the U.S. has hosted the event.
The U.S., citing the threat that unauthorized drones or cyberattacks could pose to the games, has been working around the clock to bolster protection and security, especially in the form of high-tech air defenses and counter-drone technologies.
As such, defense companies are eagerly pushing their technology and some have even proposed it as a way to launch Golden Dome, the Trump administration’s proposed missile interceptor system, intended to protect the entire continental U.S. from aerial threats.
Setting the stage
This year’s World Cup follows 2022’s highly militarized World Cup in Qatar, where many defense contractors provided security. UK-based BAE systems scored a $6.7 billion contract to provide fighter jets to surveil the tournament. Meanwhile, other defense contractors involved in the 2022 games — like U.S.-based aerospace company Fortem Technologies, which provided counter-drone technologies — are promoting themselves online as ready to support the upcoming World Cup.
Planning efforts for this year’s World Cup have taken on a militarized character of their own. U.S. Northern Command, for example, has met with representatives from 11 American host cities in order to coordinate security and logistics for the event.
The preparations’ focus on military technologies has been palpable. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a new office Jan. 12, dedicated to procuring and deploying drone and counter-drone technologies, in anticipation of the World Cup. Last week, it announced a $115 million investment in counter-drone technologies for the World Cup and celebrations related to the 250th anniversary of American independence.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also provided $250 million to eleven World Cup host states and Washington, D.C., through its new Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems grant program, established with the World Cup and America 250 in mind.
Counter-drone technologies, which have undergone significant advancements during the Ukraine war, broadly include tracking software, lasers, microwaves and even autonomous machine guns. Surveillance-intensive drone detection methods, meanwhile, can also collect personally identifiable information, including photos of civilians.
Although few security contracts for the upcoming World Cup have been made public, and it remains unclear which counter-drone capacities will be deployed at the games, it can be expected that they may employ defense sector power hitters including Anduril, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and L3Harris, which dominate that market.
Weapons industry mainstays are looking to take advantage of this opportunity to push their technologies into the domestic market. Booz Allen Hamilton, for example, will provide its Sit(x) situational awareness system, which shares drone-collected data for intelligence and collaboration purposes, to some venues hosting the World Cup.
Skydio, a company whose drone technologies have been involved in wars in Ukraine and Gaza, has promoted its drone-based security and law-enforcement services as ready to support “every phase of FIFA readiness.” Dataminr, for its part, has boasted on its website of how its AI-powered surveillance technologies, which Israel has used to spy on Palestinians in Gaza, can help secure the event.
Roberto González, an anthropology professor at San José State University and the author of War Virtually, a book about how technology and automation are transforming warfare, says the World Cup feeding frenzy could pay off big for military startups.
“I wouldn't at all be surprised if this year's World Cup winds up being a windfall over the long term for surveillance and defense tech startups,” González told RS.
A golden opportunity for Golden Dome?
As the incoming World Cup provides opportunities for military-tested tech to proliferate in the domestic sphere, some have gone as far as to suggest it could be used to test run a version of Golden Dome, whose broader goals — protecting a large geographic area from aerial threats — broadly mirror the stated security needs of the World Cup.
Maj. Peter Mitchell wrote in Breaking Defense that, if planned properly, counter-drone systems spanning the multi-city World Cup,“ can morph into the foundation for broader homeland air defense integration,” thus streamlining the roll-out of both endeavors.
Meanwhile, the Army’s Task Force 401, which leads the Army’s counter-drone efforts and is helping coordinate World Cup security, has considered linking its data sharing operations with the prospective Golden Dome project, to help it defend against aerial threats if it becomes operational.
“Our integrated counter-UAS posture across the homeland has to be tied into the Golden Dome and we’re going to make sure that it is,” the task force director, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross said at a media roundtable in December.
William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute’s Democratizing Foreign Policy Program, told RS that the World Cup could hand the Trump administration an ideal opportunity to further justify its trademark missile defense scheme, which could cost trillions of dollars over its lifetime.
“[The Trump administration] could say, look, we're defending ourselves with this technology and protecting this important event,” Hartung said. “This is the beginning of developing a system that will protect the whole country.”
American panopticon
Experts warn that broader dangers lie not only with the technologies deployed during the World Cup, but what remains of them afterward. Surveillance and counter-drone technologies introduced as temporary security measures can become permanent — further blurring the line between military defense technologies and everyday security measures.
Gonzalez warned RS that DHS’s expanding drone and counter-drone programs, through the World Cup and beyond, risk normalizing the use of militarized surveillance technologies in the name of public safety.
“DHS’s new drone and counter-drone programs threaten to expand the department’s surveillance network and further erode the privacy of ordinary people,” Gonzalez said.
“Under the pretext of keeping Americans safe, DHS appears to be planning to use high-tech surveillance tools to monitor the constitutionally protected rights of U.S. citizens,” he added. “It seems that DHS is exploiting the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence to build a nationwide American panopticon.”
For their part, defense contractors are pushing their services’ continued use in the public sphere. Skydio, for example, boasts on its website that any of its security services used to support FIFA security can assist clients “long after the crowds are gone.”
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