Drone activity has dropped roughly 75% along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley following the deployment of a new laser weapons system, military officials told CBS News.
While illegal immigration has dropped to record lows, Mexico’s cartels have found new ways to threaten the United States using drones.
Army Col. Robert Felicio, commander of the 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade deployed to the border, said the laser technology has had a “significant” impact on drone activity.
The U.S. military took out three drones on August 25 and 26, when it first began using the weapon, CBS News reported.
Since the start of the year, American troops have stopped 300 drones believed to be linked to Mexican cartels, according to the outlet. The laser took down 11 of those drones over a 10-day period.
In addition to the use of lasers, the drop in drone incursions may also be attributed to cartels using new routes, according to CBS.
During the lasers’ initial deployment, the U.S. military accidentally shot down a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) drone near El Paso, Texas, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to close the airspace. Two weeks earlier, all air traffic over El Paso was shut down after federal authorities failed to coordinate with the FAA.
Since the earlier incidents, the military has ensured better coordination with the FAA regarding its use of the anti-drone technology, according to CBS.
Before using the laser technology, the U.S. military jammed drones and sent them back into Mexico. The new anti-drone weapon allows troops to take them down altogether.
“When you just send it back and then it comes back up or is defeated temporarily, but the game changer is ensuring that that tool can’t be used again against you,” Felicio told CBS.
The lasers are mounted on top of military vehicles and are controlled by soldiers using Xbox controllers while watching camera footage on a tablet, the outlet reported. Soldiers who grew up playing video games have found the Xbox controllers to be easy tools, Army Lt. Owen Farquer, an operator of the laser weapons system, said.
When the laser is activated, a brief flash of light is seen before the drone falls to the ground, according to CBS.
Within Mexico, drug cartels have sent drones to conduct assassinations. Between 2021 and 2025, there have been 221 such attacks, resulting in 77 fatalities, according to a report from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE).
The laser technology has greatly strained the cartels’ operations and has had a massive impact on their finances, Army Lt. Col. Ray Richards, the head of the 211th Military Police Battalion from the Massachusetts National Guard that is deployed to the border, told CBS.
“When you think of 75% reduction of that capability and how that spreads based on X amount of dollars are tied to that — I think when you talk about disruption to the cartels, that is a huge part of that story,” Richards told CBS.
The Army awarded the first-of-its-kind contract for high-energy lasers to AeroVironment for $465 million, according to CBS.
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