US-CANADA BORDER — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in collaboration with Defense Research and Development Canada, plans to deploy autonomous drones and vehicles along the U.S.-Canada border in November to test which products can stream surveillance video and sensor data between the two countries over commercial 5G networks. The experiment, known as ACE-CASPER, was announced through the DHS Science and Technology Directorate.

The multiday exercise is framed as a simulated national emergency response scenario, with drones and ground vehicles relaying live feeds to a bi-national command-and-control center as they cross the border. The primary aim is demonstrating resilient, persistent 5G communications, with vehicle autonomy a secondary objective.

The trials would be the first joint U.S.-Canada cross-border technology experiment along the shared border in nearly a decade. From 2011 through 2017, the U.S. and Canadian governments staged five cross-border drills under a program called CAUSE to test whether emergency responders could share radios, video, and data with counterparts across the border.

DHS asked vendors to demonstrate the ability of autonomous vehicles to gather "real-time battlefield intelligence." The aerial systems sought are described as "Command and Control: Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance" platforms, an acronym borrowed from the U.S. Department of Defense and linked to the improvement of "kill chains."

The Science and Technology Directorate sits at the technical center of the federal government's domestic counter-drone program following restructuring under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in 2025. The executive order package prioritized procurement of American-made drones and reserved government contract opportunities for domestic manufacturers. A recent Federal Communications Commission designation bars new foreign-made drones from U.S. wireless networks.

The directorate's National Urban Security Technology Laboratory launched a counter-drone purchasing tool designed to guide police and emergency-response agencies in the Washington, D.C., region and the 11 U.S. states hosting FIFA World Cup matches this summer.

Brett Velicovich, cofounder of Powerus, voiced support for the initiative. "Powerus welcomes any effort by DHS to strengthen border security through advanced autonomous systems. Protecting American borders is exactly the mission our technology was built for, and we're encouraged to see the government moving urgently in this direction," he said.