{"id":184372,"date":"2026-02-28T10:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/184372\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T10:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:16:17","slug":"troops-downed-customs-and-border-protection-drone-in-texas-after-agency-didnt-coordinate-flight-with-military-task-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/184372\/","title":{"rendered":"Troops downed Customs and Border Protection drone in Texas after agency didn\u2019t coordinate flight with military task force"},"content":{"rendered":"

Near a small town in Texas Wednesday, troops used a counter-drone system to shoot down an unmanned aerial system operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection which was launched without coordinating with the military task force assigned to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n

Joint Task Force-Southern Border, the military entity charged with carrying out the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement in that area, was authorized to employ the anti-drone capability, according to the sources. Troops mistakenly believed the government-operated drone was a threat.<\/p>\n

This is the second counter-UAS incident in less than a month that has revealed interagency turmoil over the employment of stateside anti-drone capabilities.<\/p>\n

Three Democratic lawmakers in the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released a statement Thursday that \u201cour heads are exploding over the news that DoD reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a high risk counter-unmanned aircraft system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called<\/a> for the Pentagon and Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security to launch a joint investigation into the \u201calarming\u201d situation immediately, slamming interagency communication as a \u201cfailure.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a joint statement provided to DefenseScoop Friday, the Pentagon, CBP and the Federal Aviation Administration said that the \u201creported engagement occurred\u201d when the Defense Department used the counter-drone system \u201cto mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement did not say when the engagement happened and the Defense Department did not answer when asked about the counter-drone system being used to shoot down a CBP drone. When asked about the lack of coordination with JTF-SB, a CPB spokesperson reiterated the joint statement and did not provide additional information when asked over the phone Friday.<\/p>\n

The FAA issued a temporary flight restriction<\/a> near the shoot-down location Thursday night for \u201cspecial security reasons.\u201d One source familiar with the situation said that the military\u2019s use of the counter-drone system was coordinated with the FAA.<\/p>\n

The agencies said the \u201cengagement took place far away from populated areas and there were no commercial aircraft in the vicinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement did not disclose what type of counter-UAS weapon was employed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese agencies will continue to work on increased cooperation and communication to prevent such incidents in the future,\u201d the joint statement said.<\/p>\n

The incident \u2014 which occurred near Fort Hancock, a Texas town along the Mexican border \u2014 comes just weeks after a similar engagement temporarily shut down airspace near El Paso after CBP employed a laser system on loan from the Pentagon in the area, DefenseScoop first reported<\/a> at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple news outlets reported the objects CBP shot at earlier this month were Mylar balloons. Reuters first reported that CBP used the LOCUST counter-drone laser that caused the brief airspace shutdown on Feb 11.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the day after the most recent drone shootdown, an official with the Pentagon\u2019s counter-drone task force said the El Paso situation \u201cdefinitely highlighted the importance of the interagency working together, coming together to the table to discuss how these things will be employed safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the FAA sees a rogue drone as it were, and it\u2019s in someone else\u2019s space like Border Patrol, those things are going to be coordinated very tightly and things can be done quickly because the relationships have already been established, the procedures have already been established and we\u2019re able to action that appropriately,\u201d Marine Col. Scott Humr, deputy director of science and technology for Joint Interagency Task Force 401, said in response to a question from DefenseScoop about the El Paso airspace closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to require everyone working together, which hasn\u2019t happened in the past,\u201d he added. \u201cSo things like the El Paso incident just highlight the importance of how interagency and the Department of War need to work together and work more closely to address these issues so we don\u2019t have the issues like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

(The Trump administration has rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War.)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for JIATF 401 referred DefenseScoop to U.S. Northern Command and JTF-SB for comment about the Fort Hancock shoot-down.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Drew<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by Drew F. Lawrence
\n\t\t\tDrew F. Lawrence is a Reporter at DefenseScoop, where he covers defense technology, systems, policy and personnel. A graduate of the George Washington University\u2019s School of Media and Public Affairs, he has also been published in Military.com, CNN, The Washington Post, Task & Purpose and The War Horse. In 2022, he was named among the top ten military veteran journalists, and has earned awards in podcasting and national defense reporting. Originally from Massachusetts, he is a proud New England sports fan and an Army veteran.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Near a small town in Texas Wednesday, troops used a counter-drone system to shoot down an unmanned aerial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67078,67155,4018,73727,66057,27,29,28,66060,10226],"class_list":{"0":"post-184372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-counter-uas","9":"tag-counter-drone","10":"tag-drones","11":"tag-jiatf-401","12":"tag-joint-task-force-southern-border","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-news","16":"tag-u-s-customs-and-border-protection-cbp","17":"tag-u-s-mexico-border"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}