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US Military Shoots Down CBP Drone with Laser, Sparking Congressional Probe

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The U.S. military used a high‑energy laser to shoot down a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) drone near Fort Hancock, Texas, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to expand a no‑fly zone along the southern border and triggering bipartisan alarm in Congress over how federal agencies manage U.S. airspace.npr +1 No injuries were reported and officials said no commercial aircraft were nearby when the incident occurred late Wednesday into Thursday.nbcnews +1

The Defense Department, CBP and the FAA said in a joint statement that the military “employed counter‑unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace,” stressing the engagement took place away from populated areas.nbcnews +1 Lawmakers said the target turned out to be a CBP drone supporting border operations roughly 50 miles southeast of El Paso, raising questions about how one federal agency’s aircraft was mistaken for a threat by another.npr +1

What Happened Over Fort Hancock—and Why Lawmakers Are Outraged

Following the laser strike, the FAA issued and then expanded a Temporary Flight Restriction over the Fort Hancock area, though officials emphasized commercial traffic to and from El Paso International Airport was unaffected.npr +1 The Pentagon has not publicly identified the specific laser system used, describing it only as a high‑energy counter‑drone weapon already deployed along parts of the border.nbcnews +1

Members of Congress said they learned of the shoot‑down from administration briefings and demanded a fuller accounting of how the CBP drone came under fire. “Our heads are exploding over the news that DoD reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a high‑risk counter‑unmanned aerial system,” three senior House Democrats who oversee transportation, intelligence and homeland security said in a joint statement.cnn Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the top Democrat on the Senate aviation panel, called the episode “alarming” and urged the inspectors general for Defense, Homeland Security and Transportation to open a joint probe.npr +1

A Pattern of Missteps as Counter‑Drone Tech Moves Into U.S. Skies

The Fort Hancock incident came just weeks after CBP itself used an anti‑drone laser near El Paso in an operation that accidentally targeted party balloons and led the FAA to briefly shut commercial airspace over the city, an episode aviation experts have called a “case study” in the complexity of counter‑drone operations inside domestic airspace.bloomberg +1 Critics said the two events, taken together, showed that agencies are fielding powerful new tools faster than they are updating training and communication protocols.

The government has expanded counter‑drone authorities and funding as unmanned flights near the border surged—more than 27,000 drones were detected within 1,600 feet of the southern border in the last six months of 2024 alone, according to testimony cited by the Associated Press.npr But under federal law, the military must coordinate with the FAA before taking down drones inside U.S. airspace, and lawmakers now want to know whether notification rules were followed and whether existing safeguards are sufficient when lasers and other directed‑energy weapons are involved.npr +1

The Bigger Picture

The laser shoot‑down of a CBP drone by U.S. forces underscored how quickly the line between battlefield technology and domestic security has blurred—and how fragile the coordination is between agencies sharing increasingly crowded skies. As inspectors general and congressional committees weigh whether to launch formal investigations, the outcome could shape new rules for when and how counter‑drone systems can be used over U.S. territory, who has the authority to pull the trigger, and what protections exist when the aircraft in the crosshairs belongs to the government itself.npr +1