Could a Community Drone Detection Network Bolster Airspace Safety?

As more UAVs take to the skies, SkySafe is launching FliteGrid to help the community track them.

Jack Daleo

Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 11:30 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

FliteGrid participants will use sensors to track drones in exchange for rewards. [Credit: SkySafe]

Key Takeaways:

The FAA struggles to track the growing number of drones in U.S. skies, and despite a remote identification rule, lacks the infrastructure to collect drone broadcast data, creating safety and security risks.
To address this, drone detection provider SkySafe launched FliteGrid, a community-powered, decentralized network where individuals can purchase sensors to collect real-time drone remote ID data.
Participants are incentivized with points, convertible into virtual $FLITE tokens, for contributing to this network, which aims to provide comprehensive drone intelligence for SkySafe's customers and support the FAA's vision for a nationwide drone traffic management system.

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According to drone detection and forensics provider SkySafe, there are too many drones in U.S. skies for the FAA alone to track them.

Per the agency, there are more than 820,000 FAA-registered drones—more than half for commercial purposes—as of July. That does not include recreational drones weighing below 0.55 pounds, which do not need to be registered. To improve oversight, the FAA in 2024 began enforcing its remote identification rule, requiring drones to be equipped with digital license plates that broadcast location, speed, altitude, and other data.