UAV incident response study reveals fragmented coordination and legal gaps

A new research paper published on arXiv (2608.06472) and presented at the Thirty-second Americas Conference on Information Systems in Reno highlights critical gaps in how drone incidents are handled. Authors George Grispos, Joel Elson, Austin Doctor, and Suat Cubukcu conducted an in-person focus group with UAV and counter-UAV practitioners from US industry and government organizations. While previous forensics research focused almost exclusively on extracting technical data from drone systems, this study finds that real-world incident response is hampered by much broader socio-technical problems. The analysis reveals five core challenges: limited situational awareness and airspace visibility, fragmented reporting across agencies, weak forensic and attribution capabilities, legal and policy gaps, and insufficient training and operational capacity.

The findings carry practical weight for enterprises, law enforcement, and public safety agencies that increasingly rely on drones. Without clear airspace awareness and coordinated reporting structures, even successful drone recoveries can fail to produce useful intelligence or accountability. The paper argues that effective incident response demands more than forensic tools—it requires interorganizational workflows, updated legal frameworks, and new training models. By shifting attention from technical extraction to socio-technical readiness, the authors provide a practitioner-driven foundation for strengthening UAV incident response programs. For organizations deploying drones, this study underscores the need to invest not just in better hardware, but in the human and procedural systems that make incident handling reliable and lawful.