Jon Gruen
The troubling episode involving the skies over El Paso is what happens when you use the wrong tools for the job. Last week, the FAA shut down airspace over El Paso for seven hours after a high-energy laser system designed for combat environments was fired at what were believed to be cartel drones near a commercial airport. The targets were later reported to be party balloons.
That detail isn’t a punchline – it’s a symptom. The operators couldn’t tell the difference between a threat and a party decoration because they were likely using the wrong detection tools. And when they decided to act, they reached for the wrong mitigation tool – a directed-energy weapon designed for battlefields, not civilian airspace. There is a better way to defend against drone threats in environments like this. The technology to safely stop small drones already exists, and the federal government is buying it from us.
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