WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s Joint Task Force for the Southern Border announced that it has disabled three hostile drones using a directed‑energy system supplied by AeroVironment (AV).
According to a release issued Thursday night by the Joint Task Force–Southern Border (JTF‑SB), service members employed an Army Multipurpose High‑Energy Laser (AMP‑HEL) system to engage and defeat three hostile unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The drones posed a physical threat to U.S. military personnel and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. The statement did not specify the exact location of the engagement or the suspected operators, but suggested the aircraft may have been used for reconnaissance by a drug cartel.
Cartel networks are increasingly using unmanned aircraft systems to aid illegal human smuggling and to spy on our personnel and law‑enforcement partners, said Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, JTF‑SB commander. “By pairing layered countermeasures with advanced directed‑energy tools like this laser, we are sending a clear message that hostile surveillance will not be tolerated,” he added in the release.
An AeroVironment (AV) spokesperson told Breaking Defense that the task force employed one of the company’s non‑kinetic counter‑drone systems, which is derived from the Army’s Multipurpose High‑Energy Laser (AMP‑HEL) program. The spokesperson did not identify the specific system and did not respond to a request for clarification by press time. The original statement referenced a counter‑UAS system delivered to the Army in December, coinciding with AV’s press release announcing delivery of its prototype 20 kW‑class LOCUST.
The JTF‑SB release did not indicate whether the laser system was vehicle‑mounted, and a task‑force spokesperson did not reply to an inquiry before publication.
The operation was conducted under U.S. Northern Command and in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the release noted. This action follows the Pentagon’s expanded role in countering drone threats along the southern border, an effort that has sometimes been marred by past coordination challenges with civilian agencies.
The Pentagon has increasingly treated the southern border as a testing ground for emerging counter‑drone technologies, working with the Army‑led Joint Interagency Task Force 401, as previously reported by Breaking Defense. Through this initiative, JIATF‑401 brings industry partners to the border to demonstrate cost‑effective solutions that neutralize adversarial drones while minimizing collateral damage to nearby civilians.
