Task Force–Southern Border takes down 100 drones.

 

A senior War Department official says Joint Task Force–Southern Border took down approximately 100 suspected cartel drones during August.

That figure is significant because only days earlier, the military publicly disclosed that three cartel-linked drones had been defeated using the Army’s Multipurpose High Energy Laser system.

The two announcements should not be confused. There is no indication that all 100 drones were destroyed by lasers. Counter-UAS operations can involve electronic jamming, signal disruption, kinetic interception and directed-energy systems.

Still, the number suggests cartel drone activity along the southern border is far more extensive than previously disclosed.

Joint Task Force–Southern Border operates under U.S. Northern Command and supports the Department of Homeland Security in border-security operations and efforts to disrupt transnational criminal organizations.

Drones give cartels inexpensive capabilities for surveillance, reconnaissance, route monitoring and potentially payload delivery. Their low cost also creates a difficult economic problem for defenders: using expensive missiles to destroy relatively cheap commercial drones is not sustainable.

That is why directed-energy systems are attracting increasing attention. Once deployed, lasers can potentially engage repeated drone threats at a much lower cost per shot than conventional interceptors.

The reported August activity also raises several unanswered questions.

How many cartel drones were detected but not engaged? How many crossed into U.S. airspace? What missions were they conducting? What systems were used against them? And is 100 drones in a single month an unusual spike — or simply the first time the public has been given a realistic number?

If this level of activity is routine, the southern border is becoming an important real-world environment for U.S. counter-drone operations.

The three drones destroyed by laser attracted the headlines.  The other roughly 97 may be the more important story.