Army Laser Downs Cartel Drones on Texas Border
Army Laser Downs Cartel Drones on Texas Border 🇺🇸 🇲🇽 ⚡ 🛸 The U.S. Army has deployed its vehicle-mounted high-energy laser systems along the Texas southern border to intercept and disable unmanned aerial systems operated by Mexican drug cartels. Deployed under Joint Task Force-Southern Border, the directed-energy weapons have neutralized at least 11 cartel-operated drones crossing into U.S. airspace in the Rio Grande Valley over the past month alone. The operational platform—identified as the Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL), utilizing AeroVironment's 20-kilowatt class LOCUST laser system mounted on tactical light vehicles—tracks, burns through airframes, and fries the guidance optics of low-altitude small commercial and modified drones. Cartels operating across Tamaulipas have increasingly relied on commercial off-the-shelf and custom-built multirotor drones for aerial surveillance, reconnaissance against federal law enforcement patrols, and drug trafficking scouting routes. The directed-energy deployment delivers rapid, low-cost intercepts without expending conventional surface-to-air munitions or firing kinetic rounds across international boundaries.