US military uses high-energy lasers to shoot down three Mexican cartel drones over the southern border — narcos suspected of using UAVs for surveillance and rec

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"Cartel networks are increasingly employing unmanned aircraft systems to facilitate illicit human-smuggling and actively spy on our personnel and law enforcement partners," Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, commander of the southern border's Joint Task Force, said in a statement. "By integrating layered countermeasures alongside advanced directed-energy capabilities like this laser system, we have made it clear that we will not tolerate hostile surveillance." It’s unclear if the drones were shot down over American or Mexican airspace, but a military spokesperson told the outlet that they “were taken in coordination with all partners operating along the border.”

This isn’t the first time that a laser weapon has been used to defend American airspace. Back in February, the Pentagon used a similar system after it detected and shot down unknown aerial targets. This resulted in the emergency closure of a major airport, resulting in massive disruptions, and it also turned out that the targets were later reported to be just party balloons . Another incident involving the use of laser weapons happened a couple of weeks later, and it resulted in the shooting down of an actual drone this time. Unfortunately, the targeted drone turned out to be from the Customs and Border Protection unit , not a hostile one operated by the Mexican cartels. The military refused to release further details about the recent drone shoot-downs, citing operational security and ongoing operations, but they’ve hopefully hit the correct targets this time.

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