Army’s Counter-Drone Laser Triggers Seven-Hour Airspace Shutdown at El Paso International Airport
Washington, United States — The U.S. Army’s deployment of a directed-energy counter-drone weapon near one of the busiest airports on the southern border forced federal aviation authorities to halt all commercial air traffic at El Paso International Airport for more than seven hours on Wednesday, exposing a sharp coordination gap between military and civilian agencies as the Pentagon races to counter a surging drone threat along the U.S.-Mexico frontier.
The weapon in question is the LOCUST Laser Weapon System, a 20-kilowatt directed-energy platform manufactured by AeroVironment Inc. It was stationed at Fort Bliss, the sprawling Army installation whose Biggs Army Airfield sits just north of El Paso’s commercial terminal. Government and airline officials told reporters that the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the temporary flight restriction after determining the laser system could pose risks to aircraft operating in the area. The FAA designated the surrounding airspace as National Defense Airspace, warning that pilots who violated the restriction could face interception, detention and questioning by law enforcement.
The incident marks one of the first publicly known instances of advanced directed-energy counter-drone technology being used near a major U.S. commercial airport. And it didn’t go smoothly.
According to multiple sources briefed on the situation, the Pentagon had originally scheduled a meeting with the FAA for Feb. 20 to discuss mitigation measures and potential impacts before any operational use of the laser system near El Paso. But the Defense Department moved up the timeline, deploying the system sooner than planned — without the coordination that had been agreed upon. The FAA responded by shutting down the airspace entirely until the two agencies could sort things out.
The disruption was felt immediately on the ground. Seven arriving and seven departing flights were canceled. Medical evacuation flights had to be rerouted. Stranded passengers lined up at ticket counters and car rental desks as the closure stretched through the morning and into early afternoon. El Paso International processes roughly 100 flights daily and handled nearly 3.5 million passengers in the first 11 months of 2025, making it a critical gateway for West Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, whose congressional district includes both the airport and Fort Bliss, said she received no advance warning. Neither did the El Paso city manager or the mayor. “Everyone locally on the ground was in the dark,” she said during a press call Wednesday, “and the impact, obviously, is highly consequential.”
Further complicating the picture, a report from DefenseScoop indicated that U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel — not uniformed soldiers — actually operated the laser system to shoot down an object during what a Trump administration official described as a breach of U.S. airspace by Mexican cartel drones. According to sources, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had approved the transfer of a military counter-drone system to CBP, and troops with Joint Task Force–Southern Border trained CBP operators on the equipment. That distinction matters. Active-duty forces were reportedly not authorized to fire the weapon in that setting.
The LOCUST system itself has been quietly maturing over the past several years. AeroVironment — which merged with BlueHalo and now operates under the AV brand — first delivered palletized versions to the Army in 2022 under the Palletized-High Energy Laser program. Since then, the system has accumulated more than three years of operational deployment outside the continental United States, where it has been used to protect warfighters, allies and critical infrastructure against aerial threats.
In September 2025, AV delivered two LOCUST units integrated onto General Motors Defense Infantry Squad Vehicles as the first increment of the Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser prototyping effort. A second increment followed in December, this time mounted on Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicles with a larger-aperture beam director that improves lethality at longer ranges. The system features 360-degree scanning, multi-band radio frequency detection and a tracking gimbal capable of rotating at 100 degrees per second. It can power up in approximately 15 minutes and, perhaps most remarkably, can be operated by a single person using a standard gaming controller.
The border context adds urgency. The Pentagon reports more than 1,000 drone sightings per month along the U.S.-Mexico boundary, where cartel operations have grown increasingly sophisticated. Unmanned aircraft are used for surveillance, drug transport and even attacks on infrastructure. Defense experts have pushed to fold counter-drone capabilities into the Trump administration’s broader “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative, particularly in the southern border region.
There’s also the looming question of venue security. The United States is set to host the FIFA World Cup and America250 anniversary celebrations this summer, and officials are acutely aware of the drone threat at large public gatherings. Directed-energy systems like LOCUST are seen as a cost-effective alternative to traditional interceptor missiles — capable of neutralizing airborne threats at a fraction of the per-shot cost.
But Wednesday’s events in El Paso illustrate the friction that can emerge when military urgency collides with civilian aviation safety. An airport serving hundreds of thousands of passengers per month went dark for the better part of a business day because two federal agencies hadn’t finished talking to each other. As directed-energy weapons become more portable, more lethal and more widely deployed, the question of who controls the airspace — and who gets told about it — is only going to get harder to answer.
This article was produced in accordance with our editorial standards. Aviantics maintains strict editorial independence.
