The U.S. military accidentally shot down a government drone Thursday near the Texas-Mexico border, according to federal lawmakers, marking the second time in two weeks that a new anti-drone laser was used to shoot down an object over Texas soil.
According to reporting from Reuters and statements from lawmakers, the U.S. Department of Defense accidently brought down a drone operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection near Fort Hancock, a remote West Texas community southeast of El Paso.
In a statement from members of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, including ranking member Rick Larsen (D-Washington), the lawmakers said the drone was taken down using what they described as “a high risk” anti-aircraft system.
“Our heads are exploding over the news,” the lawmakers said.
They added that they had previously warned that sidestepping a bipartisan bill aimed at improving training for counter-drone operators and strengthening coordination between the Pentagon and federal agencies “was a short-sighted idea.”
"Now, we're seeing the result of incompetence," the lawmakers said.
In a separate joint statement, the Defense Department, the FAA and CBP confirmed the shootdown of what they described as a “seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system.” They didn’t identify the aircraft as a government drone.
“At President Trump’s direction, the Department of War, FAA, and Customs and Border Patrol are working together in an unprecedented fashion to mitigate drone threats by Mexican cartels and foreign terrorist organizations at the U.S.-Mexico Border,” the agencies said, adding that the action took place “far away from populated areas” and that “no commercial aircraft [were] in the vicinity.”
“These agencies will continue to work on increased cooperation and communication to prevent such incidents in the future,” the statement said.
This comes just two weeks after another high-profile airspace disruption, when the FAA grounded flights at El Paso International Airport following reports of an unidentified object over the region. Early reports suggested it could’ve been a drone — or possibly even a party balloon — but questions remain about what exactly was detected and why commercial planes were stopped for several hours.
