Key facts
- The Transportation, Pentagon, Energy and Justice departments signed a memo to evaluate and quickly deploy counter-drone technologies.
- FAA official Liam McKenna told Reuters the agency has approved more than 1,000 coordinations with the Pentagon and Homeland Security.
- McKenna said the FAA can turn around its review process in 24 hours for systems it has already seen.
- The Pentagon has said there are more than 1,000 drone incursions along the US-Mexico border each month.
- In April, the FAA and Pentagon agreed to allow a high-energy laser counter-drone system along the southern border.
The Trump administration said on November 9 that it is taking steps to expedite the use of counter-drone systems to address growing threats. Several US agencies, including the Transportation, Pentagon, Energy and Justice departments, signed a memo to evaluate counter-drone technologies and deploy them quickly and safely to protect aviation safety and address national security concerns, Reuters reported.
Liam McKenna, a senior Federal Aviation Administration official, told Reuters the agency has approved more than 1,000 coordinations with the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department on counter-drone deployments. McKenna said the FAA was moving to test counter-drone systems and understand their capabilities before a federal agency uses them. "We're very familiar with them from day one when they are ready," McKenna said. "There's many systems that some of the security agencies are considering using that we've seen before and we can turn around the process in 24 hours."
The memo follows a series of FAA actions on drone activity along the US-Mexico border. In February, the FAA said it would halt all flights for 10 days at the El Paso, Texas, airport because Customs and Border Protection used the Pentagon's laser system without completing an FAA safety review. The FAA lifted the order after about eight hours following the White House's intervention. The US military shot down a CBP drone with the laser-based system days later, and the FAA expanded an area where flights were barred around Fort Hancock, Texas.
In April, the FAA and the Pentagon signed an agreement allowing the government to use a high-energy laser counter-drone system along the southern US border with Mexico. Last month, the FAA said it was barring unauthorized drones along the entire US-Mexico border under a temporary flight restriction covering up to 400 feet (122 m) above ground level and extending 1 nautical mile north of the border.
The Pentagon has said there are more than 1,000 drone incursions along the US-Mexico border each month. US security officials have increasingly expressed alarm about the use of drones by Mexican cartels to drop drug packages or surveil trafficking routes.