The U.S. Military Shot Down a Customs and Border Protection Drone With a Laser Over Texas

The U.S. military used a laser to shoot down a drone it treated as threatening near the border at Fort Hancock, Texas, roughly 50 miles southeast of El Paso, on February 26, 2026. The aircraft belonged to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another federal agency. The FAA closed additional airspace around the site. The FAA, CBP and the Pentagon issued a joint statement citing counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities. It was the second such laser firing in two weeks; the earlier one, by CBP near Fort Bliss, shut down air traffic at El Paso airport and struck nothing.

One federal agency destroying another's aircraft points to a coordination failure in the deconfliction procedures governing armed counter-drone operations over domestic airspace, at a time when multiple agencies are flying uncrewed aircraft along the border.

Representative Rick Larsen and two other senior Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Homeland Security committees said "our heads are exploding over the news." No investigation findings are recorded in the sources reviewed.