Falcon Peak was a USNORTHCOM‑led counter‑small unmanned aircraft systems experiment that took place in late October 2024 at Fort Carson, Colorado. The event was explicitly framed around detecting, tracking, identifying, and mitigating small UAS threats to DoD installations, and public imagery from the event shows live mitigation demonstrations and multiple industry and DoD systems on static display.

On the equipment side, public photos and captions from the exercise document a mix of sensor suites and low‑collateral effectors. Examples visible in the public gallery include Fortem Technologies’ DroneHunter conducting a live capture, Leidos’ CUGAR demonstrator on display, and Teledyne’s Cerberus XL sensor fusion system among the vendors present. Those images make clear the experiment emphasized end‑to‑end detection to defeat chains rather than single, isolated tools.

From a practical, tactical perspective there are three takeaways I consider most relevant for facility defenders and EW practitioners.

1) Detection first, defeat second. The public material from Falcon Peak reiterates a simple truth: you cannot responsibly mitigate what you cannot reliably detect and attribute. Sensor fusion that combines radar, EO/IR, and RF cues gives the best chance of detecting a range of sUAS profiles, from emission‑heavy consumer quadcopters to low‑signature platforms. Multi‑modal sensing reduces single‑point failure modes and helps prioritize mitigations.

2) Low‑collateral effectors matter in the homeland. The systems shown in the public gallery are biased toward non‑ or low‑kinetic defeat options that reduce risk to personnel and civilian aviation. Net capture, streamers or other physical capture mechanisms, and targeted non‑kinetic approaches are useful building blocks when policy and airspace safety constrain higher‑power options. Those effectors trade broad area coverage for low collateral damage and hence must be matched with strong detection that narrows the engagement window.

3) Integration beats point solutions. The real operational value is in data handoff and shared situational awareness. A capable detection stack that fails to publish tracks and task effectors in a timely, machine‑readable way will underperform in a contested, multi‑vector scenario. Hardened, low‑latency links between sensors and effectors and clear command rules of engagement are as critical as the individual sensors and effectors themselves.

Operational recommendations

  • Start with perimeter‑oriented, layered sensing. Place at least two complementary sensors per sector you need to protect so you can cross‑correlate tracks and reduce false positives.

  • Prioritize mitigations that match mission risk tolerance. If protecting a base flightline or a civilian transport hub, favor capture or containment over broad‑spectrum denial that can impact nearby civilians.

  • Build exercise‑grade interfaces between sensors and effectors. Standardized messaging and clear APIs accelerate integration tests and allow mixed vendor architectures to cooperate in trials and real events.

  • Keep legal and safety constraints in the loop. Any operational plan for mitigation inside U.S. airspace needs to account for FAA and federal authorities and should be exercised with those stakeholders well in advance.

What Falcon Peak did not resolve

Public material demonstrates capability diversity and the push toward layered defense, but it does not provide a detailed public scoring of which approaches scaled best against fast, low‑signature threats. The archived images and captions confirm the scope and some of the actors, but not the detailed performance metrics or red team outcomes needed to pick a single winner. That evaluation is what follow‑on tests and operational trials will need to deliver.

Bottom line

Falcon Peak 2024 was a realistic, installation‑focused experiment that highlighted the importance of fused sensing, low‑collateral defeat options, and rapid integration. For defenders who must operate within strict safety and legal boundaries, the event underscored that the path forward is not a single silver bullet but a layered, interoperable architecture that can ingest heterogeneous sensor data and deliver proportionate, accountable effects.