A high-energy laser weapon system deployed by the United States military along the southern border has produced a dramatic and near-immediate result: a roughly 75 percent reduction in drone activity in the Rio Grande Valley, according to military officials who spoke exclusively with CBS News. The development marks a significant tactical shift in the ongoing effort to counter cartel surveillance operations along one of the most heavily monitored stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The laser system made its operational debut on August 25 and 26, 2026, when it was used to bring down three suspicious drones. In the days that followed, military personnel continued deploying the weapon, ultimately neutralizing eleven drones over a span of ten days. The speed and scale of the behavioral change among cartel drone operators has drawn attention from senior military leadership and defense analysts alike.
WHAT HAPPENED
Army Colonel Robert Felicio, commander of the 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade deployed to the border, confirmed to CBS News that the reduction in drone activity has been "significant" since the laser entered operational use. While Felicio declined to disclose the precise daily number of drones his unit tracks, Air Force General Gregory Guillot, the head of U.S. Northern Command, told lawmakers in 2024 that approximately 1,000 drone incursions occur at the southern border each month. A 75 percent reduction in that figure would represent a substantial operational disruption to cartel reconnaissance capabilities.
During an exclusive test of the system observed by CBS News on Friday, soldiers deployed a small quadcopter drone over an empty field near the border wall. Inside a vehicle with the laser mounted on top, operators tracked the drone using an Xbox controller and a camera feed displayed on a tablet-style device. Once the target was acquired, the laser was deployed. The effect was nearly invisible to the naked eye — a brief flash of light upon impact — but the results were definitive. When the downed drone was recovered, it had a damaged propeller and was missing its battery, though the airframe remained identifiable.
Army Lieutenant Owen Farquer, one of the system's operators, noted that the use of an Xbox controller has made the platform intuitive for many soldiers who grew up playing video games, reducing the learning curve for operators in the field.
KEY DETAILS
The laser system used by the Army is a version of a platform called LOCUST, produced by the defense technology company AeroVironment. A spokesperson for the military's Joint Task Force Southern Border confirmed that "multiple" systems are currently deployed along the border. In a development that underscores the Pentagon's growing commitment to directed-energy weapons, the Army this week awarded its first-ever contract for high-energy lasers — a $465 million agreement with AeroVironment.
From a cost-effectiveness standpoint, the economics of the laser system are striking. According to Laser Wars, a Substack publication focused on military laser technology that cited budget documents, an individual LOCUST unit costs approximately $17.4 million to $25 million. However, each individual shot costs only around $3, according to AeroVironment. That figure stands in sharp contrast to conventional air defense interceptors, which can each cost millions of dollars per use. Officials including Navy Admiral Daryl Caudle, the service's top officer, have publicly advocated for greater investment in high-energy laser weapons, with Caudle publishing an opinion piece in The Washington Post this week calling for expanded deployment of the technology.
Since the beginning of 2026, the military has stopped 300 drones that officials say are linked to cartels. Eleven of those were neutralized by the laser system alone in its first ten days of operation. Colonel Felicio and other military officials acknowledged that the recent drop in drone activity may also be influenced by other variables, such as cartels shifting to different smuggling routes, but they noted the timing of the decline coincides directly with the laser's debut.
BACKGROUND
The U.S. military already possessed jamming tools capable of sending drones back to their point of origin, but those systems have a fundamental limitation: a drone that is jammed and returned can simply be relaunched. Colonel Felicio articulated the strategic gap that the laser fills. "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 News. The laser, by contrast, physically destroys or disables the drone, permanently removing it from the cartel's operational inventory.
The path to operational deployment was not without complications. Earlier in 2026, a training episode involving the laser system caused the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly shut down El Paso's airport. That incident prompted months of coordination between military officials and the FAA to establish protocols ensuring the laser does not pose a risk to civilian aircraft. Felicio confirmed that coordination with the FAA is now ongoing, with checks conducted before and after each use of the system. He declined to specify on which side of the border the recent takedowns occurred but confirmed that the U.S. government is also coordinating with Mexican authorities on tracking potential threats.
Cartel use of drones along the southern border has evolved considerably in recent years. Officials told CBS News that cartels primarily deploy small quadcopter-style drones to conduct surveillance on U.S. service members and law enforcement personnel, identifying patrol patterns and gaps in coverage to facilitate the smuggling of people and narcotics across the border. Army Lieutenant Colonel Ray Richards, commander of the 211th Military Police Battalion from the Massachusetts National Guard, which is deployed to the border, emphasized the financial dimension of disrupting that capability. "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 News.
The threat posed by cartel drones extends beyond surveillance. A recent report from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, funded by the Department of Homeland Security, found that cartels inside Mexico have been deploying armed drones to attack rival criminal organizations. The report documented 221 such incidents between 2021 and 2025, resulting in 77 fatalities across various regions of Mexico. Military officials are actively assessing what that escalating capability could mean for the approximately 8,000 U.S. service members currently stationed along the border, as well as for law enforcement personnel operating in the region.
WHY IT MATTERS
The deployment of directed-energy weapons in a domestic border security context represents a meaningful evolution in how the United States military is approaching asymmetric threats from non-state actors. For years, the operational calculus favored the cartels: drones are cheap, expendable, and difficult to counter without expensive interceptors or jamming equipment that only temporarily disrupts operations. The laser changes that equation by making each drone incursion a potentially permanent loss for the cartel, rather than a recoverable setback.
Colonel Felicio framed the shift in blunt operational terms during his interview with CBS News. "If I just keep making it go back and then it comes back again — if it's an immediate threat, I'm getting rid of it, but long term, I'm just allowing the cartel to continue to use that thing, whereas if I am able to use the laser, now that's gone. That's, I think, really where this is making a huge difference," Felicio said.
The Army's $465 million contract with AeroVironment signals that this is not a temporary or experimental deployment. The Pentagon is making a long-term institutional commitment to high-energy laser systems as a core component of its counter-drone strategy, a posture that has implications not only for border security but for broader military operations in contested environments around the world.
CURRENT STATUS
As of the date of this reporting, multiple LOCUST laser systems remain deployed along the southern border as part of Joint Task Force Southern Border operations. Eleven cartel-linked drones have been confirmed destroyed by the laser since its August 25 debut, with the total number of cartel-linked drones stopped by all military means reaching 300 since the beginning of 2026. Drone activity in the Rio Grande Valley has decreased by approximately 75 percent since the laser became operational, though military officials caution that additional variables may be contributing to that figure.
Coordination between the military and the FAA is confirmed to be ongoing. Coordination with Mexican authorities on threat tracking has also been acknowledged, though specific operational details remain undisclosed. The precise locations of the laser takedowns have not been publicly confirmed. Whether the 75 percent reduction in drone activity will hold as cartels adapt their tactics remains an open question that military officials are continuing to monitor.
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