Stacie Pettyjohn and Molly Campbell
This week, U.S. personnel near El Paso, Texas, tested a high-energy laser as part of their mission to shoot down cartel drones along the southern border. The resulting confusion between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Pentagon triggered the longest airspace closure since 9/11, just the latest example of how unprepared America is for a drone war.
In August 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth created a new task force to rapidly field drone defenses, but recent events highlight the considerable work that remains.
This drone threat is not new. In 2016, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was the first to use quadcopters to drop bombs on U.S. forces in Mosul, Iraq, raising alarms about how this commercial technology was being weaponized. Since then, the threat has only metastasized as drones have proliferated—and with America’s adversaries building millions of drones annually. Enemies could use these drones in clandestine attacks against U.S. bases, like Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web, or launch them in large numbers to overwhelm U.S. defenses.
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