{"id":502543,"date":"2026-06-16T13:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502543\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T13:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:29:09","slug":"gardai-receive-advanced-counter-drone-training-ahead-of-irelands-eu-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502543\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed receive advanced counter-drone training ahead of Ireland’s EU presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Specialist garda\u00ed have taken part in an advanced counter-drone course run by experienced European and Ukrainian experts as part of Garda preparations for the EU presidency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The drone course ran for a full week this month and provided garda\u00ed with intensive live training, use of cutting-edge technology and the deployment of both \u201csoft kill\u201d and \u201chard kill\u201d options.<\/p>\n

Security sources said this exercise follows \u201csignificant capital investment\u201d in mobile Garda counter-drone vans and equipment, with members of a specialist section trained in their use.<\/p>\n

Sources said this strengthening of counter-drone capabilities, together with similar investment by the Defence Forces, means Ireland has \u201ccapacity commensurate with other EU countries\u201d in this area.<\/p>\n

It is part of efforts by garda\u00ed to plan and prepare for policing and security operations during the six months of the presidency, starting in just two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

The Garda Special Tactics and Operations Command (STOC) is responsible for the force\u2019s counter-drone activity and its personnel operate the mobile vans and the counter-drone equipment.<\/p>\n

Many of these are understood to be existing members of Armed Support Units, which are present in most divisions.<\/p>\n

The Advanced C-UAS (Counter-Unmanned Ariel Systems) training course was operated under the High-Risk Security Framework (HRSF), part of the European Commission\u2019s action plan to strengthen the protection of public places.<\/p>\n

It was run in Portugal by the Guarda Nacional Republicana School, with drone trainers also from the Ukrainian National Guard.<\/p>\n

A statement issued by the HRSF said: \u201cFive days of intensive training with specialists from 11 European countries, gathered to train side-by-side on the skills necessary to detect, analyse and neutralise unmanned aerial systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“More the just a tool, drones are becoming a real, growing and increasingly sophisticated threat. This challenge demands advanced and co-ordinated preparation and response capabilities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

STOC personnel took part along with specialist units from 10 other EU countries.<\/p>\n

The training included:\u00a0<\/p>\n

identification and analysis of UAS threats to detection by RF (radio frequency jamming), radar, camera and artificial intelligence systems;\u00a0
\n kinetic mitigation (munitions, lasers or nets to physically destroy drones) and inhibition methods;\u00a0
\n tactical mission planning;\u00a0
\n protection of high-risk individuals;\u00a0
\n security of critical infrastructures and large events in public spaces;\u00a0
\n nighttime operations.<\/p>\n

The range of options are described as \u201csoft kill\u201d \u2014 use of jamming or cyber takeover of drones \u2014 to \u201chard kill\u201d \u2013 which involves destroying or disabling the drone by firing munitions, lasers, nets etc at it.<\/p>\n

Sources said soft kill options are the typical response, particularly in urban areas, as hard kill options result in debris potentially falling on people.<\/p>\n

They said the course is \u201ccritical\u201d in informing counter-drone responses and capabilities.<\/p>\n

Sources also said that specialist units from other member states \u2014 particularly with experience of operating drones \u2014 can support other countries on request.<\/p>\n

It is stressed that foreign experts \u2014 for example in Ireland during the presidency \u2014 would be accompanied at all times by garda counter-drone operators and garda\u00ed would make all intervention decisions.<\/p>\n

Cormac O\u2019Keeffe is security correspondent for the Irish Examiner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Specialist garda\u00ed have taken part in an advanced counter-drone course run by experienced European and Ukrainian experts as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,74289,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-502543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-eu-presidency","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}