Cartel surveillance flights increasingly threaten US troops and federal law enforcement along the US-Mexico border. US Northern Command leaders say existing counter-UAS capabilities include fixed and movable systems, but not reliable solutions that follow a patrolling soldier. Military efforts to apply drone lessons from Ukraine and the Middle East face a different challenge at the border, where cartels fly over soldiers and Marines frequently. Pentagon concern grows as inexpensive drone technologies spread to criminal organizations. Current tools may counter drones, but reliable methods to defeat multiple drones at once or protect troops while moving are not yet available. The military needs both training and equipment, using the southern border as a testing ground to validate systems and decide what to buy or improve.
"“We have a lot of fixed and movable counter-UAS capabilities, but not really anything that would follow a patrolling soldier,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of US Northern Command, said during a panel discussion at the annual SOF Week conference in Tampa, Florida. “The cartels are flying over our soldiers and Marines all the time.”"
"While US forces possess tools to counter those drones, solutions that can reliably combat multiple drones at once or shield troops on the move do not yet exist, a significant source of anxiety for the military. Six US service members were killed in Kuwait in March by an Iranian drone strike, and three soldiers were killed in 2024 in Jordan by a drone launched by an Iran-backed militia."
"“If you're willing to bring it down to the southern border, we'll put it to use. We'll tell you if it works,” Guillot said, describing the US southern border as “a literal and a figurative sandbox” for testing emerging counter-drone systems to see if they can defeat them in practice. “If it does, we'll probably buy it. If it doesn't, we'll tell you exactly what you need to work on.”"
#counter-uas #southern-border-security #drone-threats #military-training--equipment #cartel-surveillance
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