The Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense signed an agreement on April 10 authorizing use of a high-energy laser counter-drone system along the U.S.-Mexico border, resolving an interagency dispute that had twice grounded flights in Texas.
The authorized platform is the Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL), a 20-kilowatt directed-energy system operated by Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401), the Pentagon’s counter-drone hub.
The two agencies completed a joint safety assessment at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on March 7 and 8.
A moment not planned by either agency shaped the outcome. As the AMP-HEL tracked a simulated target during the March 7 evaluation, a commercial aircraft bound for Albuquerque drifted into the weapon’s one-degree tracking angle, according to DefenseScoop.
The laser was not firing and could not have reached the aircraft, but the system’s automated safety inhibit engaged and shut the platform down without operator intervention, providing FAA officials a live demonstration of its passive safety architecture under genuine flight conditions.
“Following a thorough, data-informed Safety Risk Assessment, we determined that these systems do not present an increased risk to the flying public,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said
Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross said the Pentagon “is proving that these capabilities are safe, effective, and ready to protect all air travelers from illicit drone use in the national airspace.”
The agreement followed two incidents in February. On February 11, the FAA closed the airspace over El Paso for roughly seven hours after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operated the laser without completing a required FAA safety review, according to officials cited by the Associated Press.
The White House intervened to reverse the shutdown. On February 25, the military errantly shot down a CBP drone approximately 50 miles south of El Paso, prompting the FAA to expand a flight restriction zone near Fort Hancock, Texas.
The Pentagon reports more than 1,000 unauthorized drone incursions along the southern border each month.
CBP recorded more than 42,000 cartel-linked drone flights near the border in fiscal year 2025.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth has called on federal watchdogs to review the coordination failures that preceded the agreement.
