It was cancelled after about a year. They said the technological developments of drones went faster than they could adjust the training of the birds, there were concerns about the well being of the birds but also the risks of using large predators in areas with big crowds, and there wasn’t enough control over where the drone would end up - the bird might knock it out of the sky over a crowd.

All in all it seems like the whole idea was just a bit too uncontrollable to work as a counter-terrorism measure at events, which was the goal. The eagles just added a level of uncertainty that was not worth the gains. It might work in a situation like Ukraine though, where it is a more traditional battlefield with few civilians around. On the other hand, the drones used are offen a bit bigger and more advanced than your standard DJI, and that could definitely end up hurting the birds.

There’s no way it can get anywhere near that range at full speed. Fighters need to use afterburners to get up to max speed, and F16s run out of fuel in about 10 minutes when using afterburner.

If only they kept their actual staff and didn’t have to resort to auto-mod systems…