The U.
S. Secret Service is quietly deploying cutting-edge technology, including an artificial intelligence-driven drone hunter, to shield President Donald Trump and other top officials from emerging airborne threats.
On a recent broadcast, correspondent Norah ODonnell was granted rare access to Director Sean Curran and his team as they demonstrated several counter-drone systems in a field outside what appeared to be Washington, D.C., according to Mediaite. The showcase underscored how rapidly the security landscape is changing, and how federal protection details are racing to keep pace with threats that can be launched cheaply, anonymously, and from the sky.
ODonnell appeared particularly struck by the drone hunter itself, a menacing device resembling a mechanical black widow spider that relies on radar and artificial intelligence or super intelligence, as President Trump has rechristened it. Curran and Deputy Director Matthew Quinn narrated the test in real time as ODonnell watched the skies and CBS cameras rolled.
She observed as the drone hunter closed in on a second drone designated as a bad guy drone, as Quinn described it, and then locked on to its target. In a display of precision, the hunter fired a net that ensnared the hostile drone and dragged it to the ground, with viewers given a drones-eye perspective of the abrupt capture.
The concern is that a small, rudimentary drone like this one could be weaponized with explosives and do serious damage to a large concert, sporting event, or campaign rally, ODonnell explained. For a nation that prizes open political discourse and public gatherings, the prospect of such low-cost, high-impact attacks raises profound security and civil-liberties questions.
She noted that federal officials have become more vigilant after watching the widespread use of drones in the Russia-Ukraine war. We know that technology is going to hit the homeland at some point, so were using lessons learned there to build our program and make sure were ahead of it before it gets here, Quinn said.
You mean you think drone attacks will happen here in the United States? ODonnell pressed. We have to plan for it. We have to assume that its possible. The second were not, were going to get caught flat-footed, Curran said.
The demonstration came as Curran acknowledged the Secret Service has recorded a massive increase in violent threats against politicians this year. For conservatives who have long warned about rising political hostility and the need for robust security around campaigns and public events, the emergence of AI-powered defenses like the drone hunter is both a technological milestone and a sobering sign of the times.
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