Tag: drones

US Prohibits Unauthorized Drones Along US-Mexico Border

The Trump administration banned unauthorized drone activity along the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 16 to increase airspace security as it cracks down on drug cartel drone operations.

The ban, established through a temporary flight restriction for drones, was announced in a joint statement by the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Transportation. Friday’s announcement comes as U.S. officials have warned that the United States faces thousands of drone incursions at the southern border each month.

The new temporary flight restriction took effect Friday and prohibits any unauthorized drones from operating up to 400 feet above ground level. The restriction extends one nautical mile north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The United States government will maintain 100% operational control of our border: land, air, and sea,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a statement. “For too long, cartels have taken advantage of gaps along our southern border. Thanks to President Donald J. Trump, those days are over.”

Friday’s joint announcement said the flight restriction for drones along the southern border builds upon the administration’s previous efforts to secure the border and defend against national security threats, such as illegal cartel operations. The departments said the restriction will reduce risks to continued border security operations.

Hegseth said that the Trump administration’s decision to restrict unauthorized drone activity will give U.S. commanders more awareness, increased decision space, and additional options to defend the country.

“Equipped with cutting-edge technology – including Directed Energy Weapons – our warfighters will shoot down any cartel drone that threatens America’s sovereignty,” he added.

In March 2024, Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that there were likely more than 1,000 drone incursions along the southern border each month. He described the number as “alarming.”

In August, Joint Task Force-Southern Border used the Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser to shoot down three drones linked to Mexican drug cartels, U.S. Northern Command said. The command said the drones were determined to be directly supporting activities that posed a physical threat to U.S. military personnel and U.S. Customs and Border Protection partners.

U.S. Northern Command later said in September the task force had taken down more than 300 unmanned aircraft systems since the start of this year by using both kinetic and non-kinetic systems.

Last month, Hegseth directed the Pentagon to take steps to accelerate the development and use of anti-drone systems across the U.S. military. He warned that American adversaries are quickly producing low-cost unmanned systems and are using them to conduct surveillance, cause disruptions, and carry out attacks.

The Trump administration also previously directed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to expedite its rule-making process for establishing drone flight restrictions over sensitive locations.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday’s temporary flight restriction showed that the administration was doubling down on its promise to secure the U.S.-Mexico border by protecting U.S. airspace from threats posed by cartel drones and other illegal operations.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said, “This action will help counter cartel drone threats, protect our personnel, and strengthen security in the airspace above the border.”

An official notice for airmen advisory will be published by the FAA. It will include links to the domestic notice and the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Data Delivery System.

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Mysterious Object Spotted in St. Louis County Was Navy’s First Carrier-Based Unmanned Object Being Transported to New Location

The massive mysterious object that was seen in north St. Louis County on Sunday night has been identified.

Boeing Company in St. Louis told local FOX2 television that the object is the Navy’s first carrier-based unmanned aircraft.

Boeing was moving the MQ-25 model from Boeing to MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois.

Boeing St. Louis is the headquarters of Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDS), home to over 18,000 employees, and is the site of major defense aircraft production and a new $1.8 billion advanced combat aircraft facility.

Boeing moved its Defense, Space and Security (BDS) headquarters to St. Louis in February of this year.

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Secret Service Deputy Director Quits Amid Questions Over Ties To Drone-Defense Maker Fortem

Deputy Director Matt Quinn announced his resignation from the Secret Service in an internal agency email Friday amid questions about his conflicts of interest over the agency’s counter-drone technology.

Quinn served 23 years as a Secret Service agent before retiring in 2021. He then went to work at drone-manufacturer Fortem Technologies, which sells the DroneHunter product, as a senior vice president for three years before returning to the agency last year to serve as deputy director. His last day will be Nov. 7.

As RealClearPolitics first reported, Quinn was criticized by several current and former Secret Service agents for admitting during a mostly softball Sunday CBS News “60 Minutes” interview that the Secret Service was not prepared for an attack by a drone swarm.

The piece featured a DroneHunter demonstration without mentioning several technical problems the platform has experienced. RealClearPolitics over the last 48 hours submitted detailed questions to the Secret Service about some of the statements made during the “60 Minutes” interview about the drone technology, its effectiveness, whether the DroneHunter’s purchases were competitively bid, and the agency’s track record in taking out drones.

The “60 Minutes” report did not mention Quinn’s prior work for Fortem. The Secret Service did not respond to RCP’s questions.

Even before Quinn’s announced departure, several Secret Service sources were questioning a report in a recent CBS “60 Minutes” segment that the agency used electronic jamming equipment to take down a drone at the Army-Navy game in Baltimore last December. The game was attended by the president and several members of Congress.

The sources suggest that the Secret Service is not providing the proper context about the downed drone, while raising concerns that it was most likely a friendly-fire incident.

CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell sat down with Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Quinn in a joint interview that aired Sunday night, Oct. 11. The three discussed this year’s surge in threats to President Trump and his Cabinet and how the agency is trying to adapt to dangers posed by autonomous attack drones, not just lone gunmen.

The 13-minute report features scenes of Curran and Quinn at the agency’s Rowley Training Center demonstrating counter-drone systems. The segment featured drone-fighting technology, including the DroneHunter, a weapon that uses AI and radar to disable what O’Donnell referred to as “enemy drones.” When it’s working properly, the DroneHunter captures targeted unmanned aerial vehicles in a net.

At one point, Quinn, who concedes during the interview that the agency doesn’t have the capability to stop a swarm of drones, narrates as a DroneHunter hexacopter captures an unmanned aerial vehicle in a training demonstration.

“Whoa,” O’Donnell remarks while watching the capture starting to take place.

“What you see is the drone hanging from the drone hunter,” Quinn explains. “So, the bad guy drone is now captured. It’s gonna take it to a predetermined safe area.”

Near the end of the segment, O’Donnell states without citing a source: “60 Minutes has learned the Secret Service took down a drone using electronic jamming equipment at the Army-Navy game in Baltimore last December where the president and members of Congress were in attendance.”

It was just one line in the segment, and there was no explanation of whether the drone posed a genuine threat to Trump and everyone else gathered in the stadium for the annual military academy football rivalry. The report also didn’t indicate whether the drone was associated with a foreign actor or was simply a hobbyist’s drone that posed no threat at all.

Active and retired Secret Service agents are now calling on agency leaders to explain more fully what happened. Their biggest question is whether it was a case of friendly fire. Instead of intercepting an alien drone that may or may not have posed a threat, a Secret Service officer or agent used a handheld drone-jamming gun to disable and take out one of its own surveillance drones monitoring the stadium, the sources tell RealClearPolitics.

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The Future Of American Drone Warfare

While the war with Iran might be nearing a resolution, the war in Ukraine is heating up.

Whether this is the next stage in escalation, or the grand finale remains unclear. But lessons continue to emerge from this conflict, and world powers are beginning to act on them at scale.

Ukrainian long-range drones continue to hammer Russian energy and military sites. Targets up to 1,700 kilometers inside Russia are being hit.

These strikes are causing serious economic damage to Russia, not to mention the environmental harm. Here’s a screenshot of recent fires at Russia’s Rosneft facility on the Black Sea after Ukrainian drone attacks.

Earlier this week, President Trump expressed his anger at Ukrainian President Zelensky, “It’s time for Ukraine to get a NEW PRESIDENT!”

Ukraine’s strikes are hammering Russia’s fuel production, and causing shortages worldwide.

On the front lines, short-range drones are now Ukraine’s primary weapon holding back Russian advances. Most of these are small drones with anti-tank RPG warheads attached.

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Coast Guard places $248 million order for first MQ-9B drones

The Coast Guard is purchasing MQ-9B drones for the first time, ordering four of the high-flying unmanned aerial vehicles for just under $250 million.

The aircraft will support the service to oversee offshore waters, conduct search and rescue operations, and help counter drug trafficking operations, among other things, the Coast Guard said in a news release today. They are not expected to carry weapons, a service spokesperson told Breaking Defense.

“The MQ-9B long-range unmanned aircraft systems will expand our reach and strengthen our ability to protect the nation,” Anthony Antognoli, the assistant commandant and program executive officer for robotics and autonomous systems for the Coast Guard, said in a statement. “This investment will give Coast Guard crews a longer-range view of our maritime domain, helping them detect threats earlier, make better-informed decisions and act faster across our missions.”

The Coast Guard first revealed its plans to purchase the drones last year, thanks to funding the service received from President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” that passed in July 2025, Military Times previously reported. 

The Coast Guard said today that funding for the MQ-9B acquisition stemmed from the FY25 reconciliation package that included nearly $25 billion for the service, along with FY26 appropriations. The MQ-9B purchase totaled $247.8 million for the four aircraft, along with ground control stations and other supporting equipment, the Coast Guard said. 

The Coast Guard has previously teamed up with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and flown CBP’s MQ-9A drones for operations out of Texas, according to a Coast Guard factsheet. The Coast Guard noted in today’s release that the aircraft supported CBP to seize 60,700 pounds of illegal drugs and the apprehension of roughly 20 “smugglers” in FY26. 

The MQ-9B SeaGuardian is designed to conduct maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations for more than 30 hours at a time with a mission radius of roughly 1,200 nautical miles, according to General Atomics, which builds the aircraft.

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Ukraine’s Drones Reach Russia’s Arctic “Gas Capital”; Is Nornickel’s Palladium Next?

For most of the war, Russia’s Arctic was the part of the map nobody bothered to defend. That changed a month ago.

On September 9, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said their drones flew “more than 3,000 kilometers” to hit two gas condensate plants in the Yamalo-Nenets region: Gazprom’s Novy Urengoy condensate treatment plant, with a design capacity of 19.5 million tons of feedstock a year, and Novatek’s Purovsky plant near Tarko-Sale, which processed 13.4 million tons of condensate in 2025 (Hromadske, Al Jazeera). “Until today, this was considered an absolutely safe rear area for the aggressor,” the SOF said. Bloomberg and Reuters both picked up the claim; the Kremlin’s envoy to the Urals, Artem Zhoga, confirmed it was the first attack to reach the Arctic.

On Tuesday Moscow gave its answer: cash. The Yamalo-Nenets government approved a payment of 1 million rubles (about $11,700) for every drone destroyed over the region, the highest bounty any Russian region has offered, according to TASS (others pay 20,000-200,000 rubles). The money goes to local “mobile fire groups,” and there is a catch: per the decree, it is paid only if the defended facility suffers no damage, and the kill has to be confirmed by the military commissariat. Joining a fire group pays 100,000 rubles if you have a job and 150,000 if you don’t, and requires signing a Defense Ministry contract (Barents Observer).

Paying the unemployed more than the employed to stand on the tundra with a machine gun: nothing says confident air defense quite like it.

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Sinaloa Cartel Obtains State-of-the-Art Combat Attack Drones in Mexico

A recent seizure by Mexican authorities unmasked a new development in which the Sinaloa Cartel is now obtaining state-of-the-art combat attack drones similar to the ones being used in the Russia-Ukraine war. The issue comes at a time when social media videos have surfaced showing Sinaloa Cartel gunmen fighting in the war as a way to get trained in the newest attack drone technology.

The seizure took place this week near Mazatlan, Sinaloa, where authorities seized 15 high-end drones with fiber optic wires, headsets, and controls, as well as 42 improvised explosive devices. The seizure raised alarms within Mexico’s security forces since the type of drones seized are not the typical commercial drones used by cartels — already a major security concern.

Just one day after the initial seizure, Sinaloa state police forces seized 80 additional explosive devices that were made to be attached to drones.

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War Department Expands Use Of High-Energy Laser And Microwave Capabilities

The Department of War (DOW) has announced the selection of four high-energy laser and high-powered microwave systems to expand its operational capabilities across the United States.

The directed-energy systems were selected following a counter-drone pilot program by the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, according to an Oct. 5 DOW statement.

“High-energy lasers and high-powered microwave systems are tools that can be effectively used in a layered drone defense,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the task force.

“This pilot program will test these capabilities in an operational environment so we can understand how best to integrate and sustain them to defend the homeland,” Ross said.

The four systems selected for the pilot are laser weapon systems from defense companies Boeing, Kord, and AeroVironment, and a microwave system from Epirus.

The pilot program comes after Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Jarrard said during a symposium in Alabama on Aug. 13 that American military bases were ill-equipped to defend against swarm drone attacks.

Jarrard warned that small, unmanned aircraft systems or drones were quickly proliferating in the open market, posing a major security threat in the hands of malicious actors.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) does not have the decision speed to respond to swarms of small drones, said Jarrard, who is vice commander of NORAD’s United States Element.

“We don’t have the sensors,” Jarrard said. “So we are ill-equipped right now to handle something like that, and obviously we’ve seen it used. We’re seeing it used on a daily basis around the world, and we’ve got to figure out how to mitigate that threat, but we’re not there yet.”

During a Sept. 30 address at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called drone warfare the “biggest battlefield revolution” in many generations.

The latest pilot phase will test the performance of the directed-energy systems, providing real-time data and feedback on requirements, costs, and best practices of these technologies, the DOW said in the statement.

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Russia’s Crown Jewel Refinery Ablaze After Drone Strike, Data Center Also Hit In War First

Ukrainian drones have hit a major Russian industrial hub and oil refinery which lies very far away from the front lines of fighting, in Western Siberia, north of the Kazakh border.

The Omsk Oil refinery and industrial complex is located well over 1500 miles from the Ukrainian border. Regional Governor Vitaly Khotsenko announced Telegram that several drones were shot down by air defenses, but that one made it through to impact.

Ukraine’s General Staff was quick to own up to the Thursday attack, stating, “The destruction of such facilities is the exercise by Ukraine of its inalienable right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter and is aimed at reducing the military-economic potential of the Russian Federation.”

While the extent of potential damage to the refinery itself remains unknown, images from local residents showed explosions and fire in the area near the oil refinery.

Emergency crews are active at the scene of the facility, Russia’s largest, which is owned by Gazprom Neft

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More Ukrainian-Style One-Way Attack Drones Seized In Mexico

The emergence of fiber-optic one-way attack drones among Mexican cartels signals a troubling security threat just south of the US border.

Images published by local outlet Luz Noticias show that the Mexican Army seized Category 1 suicide drones with fiber-optic cable reels and improvised explosives. This is sparking ongoing concerns that low-cost attack drones associated with the Ukraine-Russia war and the US-Iran conflict are spreading to narco-terrorists in the Western Hemisphere.

Mexican troops found 15 drones and more than 40 improvised explosive devices in the municipality of El Rosario during security patrols on Monday. The municipality is situated in southern Sinaloa.

Here’s what the outlet said:

During the inspection , Mexican Army personnel located and seized drones , drone controllers , fiber optic cables, batteries, improvised explosive devices , chargers, cartridges, long guns , tactical vests, and ballistic plates.

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