The nation’s third-highest-ranking Department of Justice official got a firsthand look at a new FBI counter-drone training effort at Redstone Arsenal, a program he says is preparing law enforcement agencies from across the country to confront an increasingly important security threat.

Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. visited North Alabama last Thursday as part of his first trip to the state and toured the FBI’s counter-drone training operation at Redstone.

“The FBI has a first-of-its-kind counter-drone school where we are bringing state and local law enforcement to the FBI to learn the technology that is involved in countering drone threats across our country,” Woodward told 256 Today.

Woodward was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as associate attorney general in October 2025. As the Justice Department’s third-ranking official, he helps oversee its civil matters and components, including the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights and Environment and Natural Resources divisions.

“Basically, if the United States is involved in civil litigation for any reason, that reports up to me,” Woodward said.

His visit to Redstone focused on a much different challenge facing federal, state and local law enforcement: the rapidly evolving use of unmanned aircraft.

Woodward pointed to the role drones have played in conflicts overseas as evidence of how quickly the technology has become a security concern.

“There should be no question that drones are dangerous, right?” Woodward said. “We’ve seen that in the conflict in Ukraine and the conflict in Russia. We’ve seen that across the globe.”

He said the FBI intercepted more than 700 drones at FIFA events across the country this summer. None carried the type of threat law enforcement officials fear most, he said, but the number illustrates why agencies are preparing now.

“None of those were the kinds that we’re most afraid of. None of those were loaded with ordnance,” Woodward said. “But that’s the kind of threat that we’re concerned about, and we need to make sure cannot happen.”

That preparation is where the FBI’s Redstone presence becomes particularly important, according to Woodward.

The goal is not simply to build expertise within the bureau, he said, but to train state and local law enforcement officers to use counter-drone technology themselves.

“The FBI is only so big,” Woodward said. “And so what we really need are our state and local partners to be trained on the technology that we use to counter these drones.”

That could expand the country’s ability to provide protection at large public gatherings without depending solely on federal agents.

“We’re not relying just on the FBI to go to the Super Bowl, to go to the other great events that we have across our country, concerts, football games, soccer matches,” Woodward said. “We want every single one of those to be safe. And we want you, the American people, to feel safe going to those events.”

Woodward also praised the broader FBI investment he saw at Redstone, tying it to the Trump administration’s push to move more federal law enforcement personnel outside Washington.

“One of the things that President Trump and Director Kash Patel said they were going to do is move our FBI agents back into the field and out of the swamp,” Woodward said. “That’s what we’ve done in Redstone. It’s a state-of-the-art facility. It is beautiful. And we have agents who are now here instead of pushing paper back in Washington, D.C.”

Woodward joined the Justice Department in the second Trump administration after previously serving as counselor to Attorney General Pam Bondi and as an assistant to the president and senior counselor to Trump at the White House. Before entering federal service, he worked in private practice as a litigator and co-founded Brand Woodward Law.

This was Woodward’s first trip to Alabama, one that included a look at some of the FBI’s newest technology and training at Redstone. But when asked what had made the biggest impression, his answer had nothing to do with drones or technology.

“The people,” Woodward said.

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