FEMA's FY2027 Counter-Drone Round: $250 Million, 56 States, and a Scoring Rubric That Gives 70 of 100 Points to Olympics Events and Mobile Mitigation

In FY2026, eleven World Cup host states and the National Capital Region split $250 million in counter-drone money while every other state looked on. On October 16, 2026, FEMA opened the second half of the $500 million appropriation to everyone else. The FY2027 Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) Grant Program (DHS-27-GPD-161-00-99, Assistance Listing 97.161) pays out $250 million in 56 awards, one to each state and territory. Applications are due in FEMA GO by 5 p.m. ET on November 16, 2026.

The window is 31 days. For a city police department, county sheriff, or regional fusion center hoping to get drone detection radar out of this round, the real window is shorter, because none of them can apply to FEMA directly.

We covered the program's creation in March and the FY2026 World Cup tranche in June. The FY2027 NOFO answers the question those posts left open: how the money gets split once every state is in the pool. Three things stand out. The statutory floor eats most of the money. The 100-point effectiveness rubric is built around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. And mitigation equipment bought with these funds is effectively committed to a national mutual-aid pool.

The Floor Eats 70 Percent of the Money

The C-UAS program was appropriated under Section 90005(a) of the Working Families Tax Cut Act (Pub. L. No. 119-21) through the authorizing statute for the State Homeland Security Grant Program. That brings SHSGP's statutory minimums along with it. The NOFO's math is unusual. The FIFA ($625 million) and Olympics ($1 billion) lines in the same act are exempt from minimums, so FEMA calculates the floor on the combined C-UAS and Operation Stonegarden total of $950 million:

• Each state, Puerto Rico, and DC: 0.35 percent, or $3,325,000
• American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands: 0.08 percent, or $760,000

Fifty-two jurisdictions at $3.325 million is $172.9 million. Four territories at $760,000 is $3.04 million. Together that comes to roughly $175.9 million in guaranteed allocations, about 70 percent of the $250 million. Only the remaining ~$74 million is distributed on the DHS Terrorism Risk Methodology and the "anticipated effectiveness of proposed projects."

The NOFO and the Grants.gov listing don't even agree on the award range. The PDF says $760,000 to $25 million. The Grants.gov synopsis gives a floor of $822,338 and a ceiling of $18,665,396. Either way, the arithmetic says the same thing: most states will land within a few million dollars of $3.3 million, and only a handful of high-risk jurisdictions, almost certainly led by California, will draw substantially more.

For a local agency that changes the pitch. You are not competing nationally for a big award. You are competing inside your state for a slice of a roughly $3.3 million pot, and the State Administrative Agency (SAA) decides how it is cut.

Only the SAA Can Apply, and It Has to Submit 150 Percent

The SAA is the only eligible applicant, limited to one application. Tribal governments can't apply directly. They participate as subrecipients. SAAs must pass through at least 97 percent of funds to local and tribal governments, keeping up to 3 percent for management and administration. They may also keep up to 20 percent for justified state-level purchases. The NOFO says both things, so read the two provisions together: the 20 percent state retention is the exception that eats into the 97 percent pass-through.

The process detail that matters most to locals is that SAAs must forward Investment Justifications (IJs) totaling 150 percent of the state's allocation. A state with a $3.325 million allocation should send roughly $5 million in local projects to FEMA, ranked. FEMA uses the overflow to replace projects found ineligible or unallowable. SAAs also have to forward the IJs they did not recommend, including incomplete ones.

That means two things. First, a project that ranks just below the line in your state's list is not dead. It is a backup that FEMA can reach for. Second, SAAs will be soliciting subapplications on a compressed internal schedule to assemble that 150 percent package before November 16. Expect state deadlines in late October or the first week of November. If you have not heard from your SAA by the time you read this, call them.

Subapplicants carry vetting burdens that are new for many local public-safety grants. They must submit short bios and resumes for organizational leadership and board members, with names and addresses, and "resumes are subject to approval." The NOFO says subapplicants "should not have foreign nationals or Aliens included." DHS also screens selected subrecipient names and addresses against intelligence community reporting after selection. Any derogatory hit bars funding.

The Rubric: 40 Points for Events, 30 for Mitigation

FEMA plans to select funding by December 2 and issue awards around December 10, 2026. To make that pace possible, effectiveness scoring happens after award. Within 30 days of award, recipients submit project-level details for the full 150 percent, and DHS Science and Technology subject matter experts score them on a 100-point technology effectiveness checklist:

Seventy of the 100 points go to two things: naming a specific National Special Security Event or SEAR 1/2 event occurring between 2027 and 2029, with name, date, and city, and buying mobile mitigation equipment. The 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics are an NSSE, and their ancillary events are SEAR-rated. The NOFO says this round "must be strategically leveraged to support the Olympic torch relay," whose domestic route will cross many states that will never host an Olympic event.

For a jurisdiction outside Southern California, the torch relay is the single most useful line in the document. Find out whether the relay route passes through your state. If it does, tie your project to it explicitly. Other qualifying events include Super Bowls and any event that already carries a SEAR 1 or 2 designation. Projects that address no national-significance event remain eligible, but the NOFO tells SAAs to use event support for prioritization.

The mitigation points come with strict conditions. Points are awarded only when the proposal names the Authorized Technologies List category (and Authorized Systems List entry, where populated), the designated operating agency, named personnel holding or enrolled for FBI National Counter-UAS Training Center (NCUTC) Mitigation Certification, and the agency's accreditation status or planned attestation date under 6 C.F.R. § 124.6. Kinetic mitigation scores zero until a kinetic category is added to the list. Fixed mitigation installations are unallowable outright.

The Strings on Mitigation Gear

The SAFER SKIES Act (enacted in the FY2026 NDAA, Pub. L. No. 119-60) and its implementing rule at 6 C.F.R. Part 124 let accredited state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and correctional agencies take counter-drone action. The NOFO is blunt about it: "Possession of mitigation equipment does not authorize its use." A fire department or emergency management office can own, house, and transport a mitigation system, but only an accredited law enforcement or correctional agency's certified officers can operate it. The two parties must sign a custody-and-control agreement, which is submitted with the IJ. Operators also need a valid FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate.

Three conditions deserve a second read before a county commits:

1. The 80/20 use target. Among the mid- to long-term targets, 80 percent of mitigation systems procured through the program should be used to protect the 2028 Games, the torch relay, and other NSSE/SEAR activities. Only 20 percent of use during the period of performance should support events not of national significance.
2. Unreimbursed mutual aid. Every recipient state must agree to provide mutual aid to other recipient states. Invocation explicitly includes support for the 2028 Olympics. Under the NOFO, "no Party shall request or receive reimbursement for the use of equipment."
3. Mandatory data sharing. Any recipient or subrecipient that buys detection hardware, software, or data services must give DHS access to detection events, tracks, Remote ID data, and sensor metadata to support "nationwide low-altitude air domain awareness," and must write that access into vendor contracts.

Add the American Security Drone Act's ban on covered foreign UAS, the Section 889 telecom prohibitions, no indirect costs, no pre-award costs before December 10, 2026, and a 36-month performance period ending December 9, 2029. The pattern is clear: this is federal capacity-building delivered through state and local balance sheets.

What a Competitive Local Package Looks Like

DHS states its preference plainly. It "strongly encourages" radar, because radar detects drones that emit no radio frequency signals. That covers autonomous, pre-programmed, and modified drones, which RF-only systems miss. Radar, EO/IR, and Remote ID receivers also don't require 6 U.S.C. § 124n authority or NCUTC certification. Only RF systems that intercept control communications do. The free online Detection and Warning certification through NCUTC has no waitlist.

A strong subapplication for an agency outside an Olympic venue city typically:

• Names a specific 2027–2029 SEAR 1/2 event or torch-relay segment, with dates, and commits to implementation before it
• Pairs radar with EO/IR cueing and a siting/coverage concept, and adds Remote ID receivers
• Includes mobile, ATL-listed mitigation only if an accredited law enforcement agency with named NCUTC-enrolled personnel will operate it
• Budgets close to FEMA's targets of 70 percent equipment, 10 percent contracted services, and 20 percent training
• Shows a 6-month procure-install-train schedule for the extra timely-implementation point
• If it was funded in FY2026, explains how the new request expands rather than duplicates that capability

The program is not well suited to jurisdictions without an accredited law enforcement partner, to proof-of-concept or technology-development work (both unallowable), or to anyone hoping to fund overtime and backfill. Personnel costs are allowed only when tied directly to approved projects.

Counter-drone capability bought in December 2026 will be judged at the torch relay in 2028. With a single-digit-week runway, the advantage goes to agencies that already know their SAA contact, their accreditation status, and the event they are protecting. If you need to turn that into a ranked Investment Justification fast, Granted can help you draft and pressure-test it before your state's internal deadline.