Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
US Department of Homeland Securityin partnership with Defense Research and Development Canada, is looking to deliver independence drones and vehicles on the US-Canada border this fall, testing the capabilities of the product to transmit video surveillance and sensor information between the two countries using 5G technology.
DHS’s new call for participants creates the experiment, known as ACE-CASPER, as a multi-day “national emergency response exercise,” with drones and ground vehicles delivering live food to command-and-control centers around the country as they cross borders. The car’s autonomy, the document says, is secondary to its main goal: to demonstrate “seamless, continuous 5G connectivity.”
DHS and DRDC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Scheduled for November, the test will be the first US-Canadian technology to cross the border at their shared border in nearly a decade. From 2011 to 2017, the two governments held five cross-border exercises. called BECAUSEtesting whether emergency responders on either side of the line can share radio, video, and data with their counterparts across borders.
Even if it falls on public safety, search and rescue, and emergency response, DHS describes much of what the test will do in military terms, asking vendors to demonstrate, for example, the ability of autonomous vehicles to gather “real military intelligence.” The proposed aerial systems are described as “Command and Control: Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance” or C2ISR platforms – a borrowed acronym from US Department of Defenselinked to the control of “killing chains.”
DHS announced the drone test through government procurement processes and the department’s research and development arm, the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in collaboration with Defense Research and Development Canada, its northern partner.
The Directorate is at the center of the US government’s domestic anti-drone program following a major overhaul with the help of Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump in 2025. Last week, S&T’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory launched a commercial anti-drone weapondesigned to guide police and emergency services in the Washington, DC, region—and the 11 U.S. states hosting this summer’s FIFA World Cup.
The same package of administrations also prioritized the purchase of American-made drones and preserved government privileges for domestic manufacturers – a major opening for the US drone industry, further expanded by the recent Federal Communications Commission. name which bans new foreign-made drones from US wireless networks.
Any companies that have the opportunity to respond to the invitation of the November test will include several suppliers who have relations with the eldest children of the President.
Powerus Corporation, a Florida-based drone manufacturer recently merged with a golf company which is sponsored by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., is one. Anduril Industrieshow his company Trump Jr placed last yearcreates a fleet of military-focused drones at the Pentagon, while having a major border security partnership with DHS: a A $1.1 billion deal deploying AI-powered surveillance platforms at the southern border.
“Powerus welcomes any efforts by DHS to strengthen border security through advanced autonomous systems,” Powerus co-founder Brett Velicovich tells WIRED. “Protecting America’s borders is the mission our technology was designed for, and we’re encouraged to see the government move quickly in this direction.”
Unusual Machines, an Orlando, Florida, drone maker where Trump Jr. already acted as a mentor and received shares that are worth about $4.4 million today, they don’t sell directly to the government, a company spokesperson tells WIRED, but they sell to vendors who do.
Xtend, an Israeli drone manufacturer now sponsored by Eric Trumpalso opened a headquarters in Tampa, Florida, in summer 2025 and announced a a multi-million dollar deal from the Pentagon’s special office last fall. Xtend declined WIRED’s request for comment.
