The US Army counter-drone initiative is moving forward along the US-Mexico border as commanders seek to counter rising cartel drone activity and apply lessons from Ukraine’s war, officials said.
At Falcon Peak, a US Northern Command exercise held in September in Arizona, soldiers observed industry demonstrations of radars, interceptor drones, autonomous gun systems and other tools designed to detect, track and disable small unmanned aircraft.
Army officials said drones crossing the southern border are typically commercially available systems used by criminal groups for surveillance in support of smuggling and human trafficking. Brigadier General 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 number is rising.
“We are seeing largely commercial off-the-shelf available drones,” Filler said. He noted most carry cameras and are frequently spotted in conjunction with cross-border movements.
Earlier this month, the military said it had downed 11 cartel-operated drones with lasers since fielding the technology along the southern border in August.
US Army counter-drone lessons from Ukraine
Military planners are pushing to incorporate battlefield takeaways from Ukraine, where drones have reshaped operations and accelerated development of attack and defense systems.
Officials emphasized that cartel-operated drones differ from the more advanced systems used in Ukraine or the Middle East. Even so, they said the border provides a valuable operational setting to trial equipment, train troops and measure performance outside controlled test ranges.
The exercise underscored the Pentagon’s growing engagement with venture-backed defense firms. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, investors have funneled capital into companies such as Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic and a wave of smaller drone and counter-drone startups seeking contracts.
Among the systems featured were Anduril’s Ghost drone, a radar-and-camera detection suite from Teledyne FLIR, the “Bullfrog” automated counter-drone machine gun by Allen Control Systems, and an interceptor drone sold by Powerus, which went public on Thursday through a merger with a firm backed by the sons of US President Donald Trump.
Officials said a core objective is to replicate Ukraine’s rapid iteration cycle. “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,’” Brigadier General Matt Ross told reporters. “What we should really do is replicate that process.”
Army officials have highlighted that such efforts align with broader modernization initiatives, including work by the Army Futures and Autonomous Systems Command to develop and field new autonomous capabilities more quickly.