The Biden White House was briefed on cartel drones flying near American military facilities – and rejected every proposal to stop them.
Trump changed that the day he took office.
Now Army soldiers are doing something every single morning that has cartel drone operations in freefall.
Army Laser Cuts Cartel Drone Attacks 75 Percent on the Southern Border
Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle flew to the Arizona border and delivered a message the Biden administration never could.
"Just this morning, skilled Army soldiers used cutting-edge tools and techniques to take out cross-border drones affiliated with the cartels," Telle told The Daily Wire. "This is happening every single day, and the Army and our partners are evolving to meet changing threats."
Since January, the Joint Task Force–Southern Border has defeated more than 300 cartel drones along the 1,954-mile border – including roughly 100 in August alone.
DHS counted 378 hostile cartel drones at the southern border in just five weeks between August 22 and September 25 – and the pace is accelerating.
Biden's Pentagon held meetings while cartel pilots logged hours over American troops – then Trump sent in the military.
The Army's newest weapon is a high-energy laser system integrated into border operations in late August.
Within days, troops used it to destroy three cartel drones in the Rio Grande Valley that commanders said posed a direct threat to U.S. personnel.
Border Patrol officials confirmed a 75 percent drop in cartel drone activity in South Texas within days of the laser deployment – the most active corridor the cartels operate.
DHS issued a direct warning to the cartels this week: "Your drones are failing, your tactics are being exposed, and you have no advantage."
Falcon Peak 26.2 and the Counter-Drone Technology Cartels Cannot Stop
Telle's border stop wasn't the only destination.
He also traveled to U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground to observe Falcon Peak 26.2 – the military's fourth large-scale counter-drone exercise and the first designed specifically around southern border threats.
The exercise brought together the Army, Northern Command, and dozens of private technology companies to test next-generation systems against the exact drone profiles cartels are deploying today.
Telle watched live demonstrations of how systems detect a drone, classify whether it's a threat, and neutralize it – all within seconds.
"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.
For four years, counter-drone proposals against cartel incursions went exactly to paper – reviewed, risk-assessed, and shelved.
Anduril's Lattice platform – a command-and-control system that connects every sensor and weapon on the network into a single targeting picture – gave Falcon Peak 26.2 its operational architecture, the first time the system has anchored the exercise series.
Northern Command's director of operations, Brig. Gen. Jason Rueschhoff, confirmed after Thursday's exercise that the next Falcon Peak will focus on urban environments – protecting stadiums, airports, and cities from the same drone playbook cartels are now running at the border.
How Cartel Drone Tactics Crossed From Ukraine to the Southern Border
Border security analysts report that cartel organizations sent members to fight alongside Ukrainian forces specifically to study battlefield drone techniques.
The tactics they brought home include fiber-optic-guided drones that electronic warfare systems cannot stop – the same category of threat American troops are now pulling out of the sky before dawn.
Biden left the military on the sidelines while cartels got a battlefield education.
Trump deployed the Army, authorized the lasers, and told the Department of War to execute what officials called "the first-ever plan and strategy to use direct military force to defend the homeland from this threat."
Senior administration officials said the results had been "spectacular" – calling it "the largest and steepest reduction in U.S. casualties inflicted by the cartels in American history."
The cartels get more creative every day – and for the first time in years, the Army is keeping pace.
The difference now is that somebody in Washington is actually letting them fight back.
Sources:
- Brecca Stoll, "EXCLUSIVE: Inside The Counter-Drone Unit Battling Cartels On The Southern Border," The Daily Wire, September 25, 2026.
- "DHS Issues Stark Warning After 300 'Hostile' Cartel Drones Detected at Southern Border," Fox News, September 25, 2026.
- "US Military Took Down Approximately 100 Suspected Cartel Drones at Southern Border in August," Fox News, September 2026.
- "Border on the Brink as Cartel Drones Force US to Act After Years of Paralysis," Fox News, February 12, 2026.