The U.S. Army is testing counterdrone technology in the U.S.-Mexico border area, seeking to sharpen its defenses against the growing threat of drone use by cartels and emulate the rapid battlefield innovation happening in Ukraine’s war with Russia. At Falcon Peak, a U.S. Northern Command exercise in September at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, Soldiers watched as defense firms demonstrated radars, interceptor drones, autonomous gun systems and other technologies designed to detect, track and destroy small, unmanned aircraft.
Army officials said drones crossing the southern border are typically systems sold commercially and used by criminals for surveillance linked to their smuggling and human trafficking operations. Brig. Gen. Brian Filler, deputy commander for operations at Joint Task Force-Southern Border, told reporters the military detected 378 drone incursions in the previous 30 days and that the trend was increasing.
“We are seeing largely commercial off-the-shelf available drones,” Filler said, adding that most carry surveillance cameras and are often observed alongside cross-border movements. The U.S. military said September 4 that it had downed 11 cartel drones using lasers since deploying the technology along the southern border in August.
Learning from Ukraine
Military planners are racing to keep pace with lessons from Ukraine, where drones have transformed the battlefield and driven rapid innovation in both offensive and defensive systems.
Military officials caution that cartel-operated drones are not comparable to the sophisticated battlefield ones seen in Ukraine or the Middle East. But they say the border offers a valuable operational environment to test equipment, train Soldiers and evaluate how systems perform outside controlled laboratory conditions.
The exercise highlighted the Pentagon’s growing embrace of venture-backed defense technology firms. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, investors have poured billions of dollars into companies such as Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic and a wave of smaller drone and counterdrone startups seeking military contracts.
Anduril’s Ghost drone was featured in the demonstrations, as well as the radar-and-camera detection system produced by Teledyne FLIR, the “Bullfrog” counterdrone automated machine gun produced by Allen Control Systems, and an interceptor drone sold by Powerus, which went public October 2.
Officials said part of their goal is replicating the rapid iteration cycle seen in Ukraine. “We tend to look at Ukraine and we say, ‘I am so impressed with how quickly they can adapt on a daily or weekly basis,’” Brig. Gen. Matt Ross told reporters. “What we should really do is replicate that process.”