EXCLUSIVE: Inside The Counter-Drone Unit Battling Cartels On The Southern Border

U.S. Army soldiers are taking out cartel drones at the southern border daily, Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle told The Daily Wire during a Thursday visit to the Arizona border. 

“Just this morning, skilled Army soldiers used cutting-edge tools and techniques to take out cross-border drones affiliated with the cartels,” Telle said. “This is happening every single day, and the Army and our partners are evolving to meet changing threats.”

Telle, who was named acting Army secretary earlier this month, traveled to U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground to observe U.S. Northern Command’s Falcon Peak 26.2, a counter-drone exercise in which the military and industry test ways to stop small drones. He watched a demonstration of how systems detect a small drone, determine whether it’s a threat, and neutralize it. 

Telle said the exercises apply lessons from ongoing conflicts to real-world training.

“We are using lessons learned from ongoing conflicts around the globe to constantly improve our use of low-cost, high-tech capabilities in real-world exercises, not on paper,” he said.

“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary of War Hegseth, the Army is defending our homeland by strengthening our counter-drone efforts and securing our southern border,” Telle added. 

Telle then flew over the southern border by helicopter and toured a detect-and-monitor site, where he met with soldiers supporting the mission and thanked them for their service. He said the soldiers are “working day and night to keep our homeland safe by deterring and defeating hostile actors attempting to breach our border.” 

Northern Command says cartels use drones for smuggling, human trafficking, and surveilling U.S. troops. Since the beginning of this year, the Joint Task Force–Southern Border has defeated more than 300 drones, including more than 100 in August alone. The task force added a mobile high-energy laser to its arsenal in late August.

The drones keep coming. The Department of War detected 378 cartel drones at the southern border between August 22 and Thursday.

Lieutenant Commander Lauren Cole, the task force’s deputy director of public affairs, warned that cartels are adapting their drone tactics but said American forces are keeping pace. 

“They get more creative every day — but so do we,” she said.

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