At this year’s World Cup, while fans are watching the players, companies like Ondas Holdings and Fortem Technologies will be watching the skies.

This year’s tournament isn’t just a battle for soccer supremacy. It’s also a major test of whether the United States can protect packed stadiums from a quickly evolving security threat: the cheap, nimble and autonomous drones that have upended modern warfare in Ukraine and Iran.

At stadiums like MetLife in New Jersey and AT&T Stadium in Dallas, radar from Utah-based startup Fortem will scan the sky for suspicious activity. If an unknown drone flies overhead, it will send up what it calls a DroneHunter to chase it down, firing a net to capture it midair. Then it can bring down the drone by tether or parachute so law enforcement can recover it as evidence.

Across the country, in states such as California, Massachusetts and Florida, defense tech company Ondas, which has a $6.7 billion market cap, plans to deploy its sensor-based Sentrycs system to protect crowded venues from hostile drones. Unlike traditional jamming systems that interfere with police radios or nearby communications, Sentrycs passively listens for the radio link between a drone and its pilot to identify the aircraft and find out where it came from. If the drone is suspicious or threatening, Sentrycs can take over its autopilot to land it in a designated area.

Both businesses have multimillion-dollar contracts to protect World Cup stadiums with the federal government, which is pouring $365 million into drone-focused security for the 104 matches hosted across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. That includes $250 million........

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