Lockheed Martin and partners including Verizon and NVIDIA have launched NetSense, a system that detects unmanned aircraft systems by leveraging existing 5G networks and artificial intelligence to predict drone movements and alert customers to threats.
The technology was demonstrated in Miami in July and is designed to protect critical infrastructure, public venues, utilities, and government facilities without requiring new hardware investments.
What happened
Lockheed Martin, Verizon, NVIDIA, Keysight, ODC, and Astris AI unveiled NetSense™, an airspace awareness system that uses 5G networks and AI to detect unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), predict their flight paths, and automatically alert customers to threats. A July demonstration in the Miami area validated the technology for commercial use.
Why it matters
As drones become cheaper and more accessible, threats to airspace have grown; the system addresses a critical gap in public protection by running on Verizon's existing 5G network without requiring new hardware, making it affordable and scalable for critical infrastructure, events, utilities, schools, hospitals, airports, and government agencies.
What to watch
The NetSense solution is designed to deploy across any 5G or future 6G Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) network, using existing radio frequency measurements; it combines Lockheed Martin's warning and tracking systems with NVIDIA's AI Aerial platform and ODC's AI-RAN software.
On August 12, 2026, Lockheed Martin announced NetSense™, an Airspace Awareness-as-a-Service™ system developed in collaboration with Verizon, NVIDIA, Keysight, ODC, and Astris AI (Lockheed Martin's wholly owned subsidiary). The system is designed to detect unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and protect airspace in an era when drone technology is becoming increasingly affordable and accessible.
The NetSense solution integrates two core Lockheed Martin components—a warning system and a tracking system—that work together to detect, interpret, and respond to UAS threats. The system uses artificial intelligence to analyze changes in a drone's flight path, predict its next movements, and automatically send alerts to customers about potential threats. Rather than requiring new, specialized hardware, NetSense runs on Verizon's existing 5G network spectrum and uses radio frequency measurements the network already collects. NVIDIA's AI Aerial platform powers the detection algorithms, drawing on data feeds from ODC's AI-RAN software, while Keysight's RF modeling optimizes deployment. The architecture is designed to work across any 5G network or future 6G Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) network, making it scalable and future-proof.
In July 2026, the Miami area demonstration proved the technology could protect a wide range of civilian and government infrastructure: critical infrastructure sites, large-scale public events at stadiums, utilities such as power plants, and everyday public spaces including schools, hospitals, and airports. City, state, and federal government agencies can also deploy the system to gain proactive monitoring and threat alerts. Sarah Hiza, Lockheed Martin Senior Vice President of Technology and Strategic Innovation, stated: "As drones become more affordable and accessible, airspace awareness technology needs to evolve rapidly to outpace potential threats. That's why we developed the NetSense solution. By working within the established 5G spectrum, we're able to collaborate with the commercial technology industry and deploy a solution that's ready at the time of need." The company positions NetSense as a real-time, low-altitude airspace watchtower—a tool that brings the level of protection normally associated with ground-level security systems to the sky above critical and public spaces.
The rise of affordable, accessible drones has created a significant gap in airspace defense—existing systems designed for military or high-altitude threats do not address the emerging risk of low-altitude incursions over populated areas and critical infrastructure. Lockheed Martin's NetSense system tackles this problem by repurposing infrastructure already in place: Verizon's 5G network and the radio frequency data it collects. By partnering with commercial technology leaders—NVIDIA for AI inference, ODC for software-defined radio access networks, and Keysight for RF modeling—the collaboration avoids the capital expense and deployment delays of purpose-built hardware, instead layering detection algorithms atop existing networks.
The July Miami demonstration is a key validation milestone, showing that the approach works across real-world scenarios including stadiums, power plants, airports, and municipal spaces. This breadth of use case suggests the system is neither over-specialized for military defense nor too general to be useful; it addresses the practical concern of protecting everyday civilian infrastructure from drone incursion. Notably, the system works without waiting for 6G standards to mature or new ISAC-capable hardware to deploy, a significant advantage in a threat environment where technology adoption speed may matter.
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