The United States military shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone near the Mexico border with a laser-based anti-drone system, an accident that led the Federal Aviation Administration to bar flights in an area around Fort Hancock in Texas, according to congressional aides.
Speaking to Reuters, the congressional aides mentioned that the drone was shot down in an area that often has incursions from Mexican drones operated by drug cartels.
The Pentagon, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have issued a joint statement clarifying that the military used a “counter-unmanned aircraft system … to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace”.
The statement added that the incident near the Mexico border “took place far away from populated areas and there were no commercial aircraft in the vicinity. These agencies will continue to work on increased cooperation and communication to prevent such incidents in the future.”
Senator Tammy Duckworth, a top Democrat on an aviation subcommittee, has called for the inspector-generals at the three agencies to investigate the incident.
Democrat representatives Rick Larsen, Bennie Thompson and Andre Carson, part of committees that oversee aviation and Homeland Security issues, criticised the lack of coordination over the issue near the Mexico border. They said they had warned the White House that sidestepping bipartisan proposals to train counter-drone operators and address coordination issues “was a short-sighted idea.”
“Now, we’re seeing the result of incompetence,” the statement said.
The FAA had cited “special security reasons” for its notice about airspace restrictions near the Mexican border, saying it will be expanding prior flight restrictions to “include a greater radius to ensure safety.” They clarified that commercial flights will not be impacted.
The FAA notice has barred all flights in the Fort Hancock area but allowed air ambulance or search and rescue flights to be authorised with the Joint Task Force-Southern Border. The flight restrictions are said to last until June 24.
Earlier this month, the FAA said it was halting traffic for 10 days at the airport in El Paso, 50 miles from Fort Hancock, only to reverse course on the decision and lift its order about 8 hours later.
Reuters reported that the closure was due to concerns about the use of the laser-based anti-drone system and that the FAA agreed to drop its restrictions around El Paso on the condition that the Pentagon agreed to delay further testing pending an FAA safety review.
Both the Pentagon and CBP told congressional aides, earlier this week, that they believed they could deploy the laser without the FAA’s prior approval.
Aides stated that there has been a lack of coordination between the FAA and the Pentagon.
The CBP deployed the laser technology earlier this month to take down four suspected cartel drones, despite FAA warnings that the technology had not been deemed safe to use in the vicinity of commercial flights, an aide told Reuters, adding that the agencies mentioned that the drone had never been deployed domestically.
(With inputs from Reuters)
