Lawmakers say US Military used laser to take down Border Protection drone in TX

[heisenbit]

When Nena was singing about 99 balloons we thought it was hyperbole. Few understood she was a traveler from a future where soldiers where literally shooting down birthday balloons before progressing to drones. Scary to think about the next level of escalation.

[kgwxd]

Geez, I even recently watched a video about the making of that song, and completely forgot it was exactly about that. Now I'm even more depressed, but at least I have an upbeat riff stuck in my head.

[philipallstar]

> Cartels routinely use drones to deliver drugs across the Mexican border and surveil Border Patrol officers. Officials told Congress last summer that more than 27,000 drones were detected within 1,600 feet (500 meters) of the southern border in the last six months of 2024.

No wonder they mistook one of theirs for one of these.

[orwin]

That's such am inefficient, hands-on, loud and dumb way to smuggle drugs across a border this large, this cannot be true. Unless you they are talking about submarines and land RCs, in that case sure, probably.

[iso1631]

Given they have so far managed to shoot down a balloon and a government drone you'll forgive my scepticism.

[duxup]

I wonder how accurate that number is. Are detected drones just blips on some detection system? Are they even drug running drones, are they even drones at all?

[pjc50]

Alternative hypothesis: the reported number of drones isn't real (anything the Trump government says about "cartels" can be assumed to be made up). The military got increasingly on alert, with senior officers pushing to get a shootdown on one of the not real drones. Therefore the laser operators end up firing on the first drone they confirm seeing.

Compare the MH-17 incident. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatwick_Airport_drone_incident , which also involved no confirmed actual drone.

[comrade1234]

When I read the headline at nytimes I was thinking that it was a test drone and they were testing the process of communicating across branches to coordinate taking down drones (a real problem) but no, it was just incompetence and idiocy. Guess I'm not cynical enough yet to match reality.

[duxup]

The current administration has staffed administrators who seem to choose "shoot first and ask questions later" and generally struggle to communicate / coordinate like adults.

[happymellon]

Just waiting for these lasers to take out important stuff because they can shoot first, ask later.

Mistook a helicopter for a drone because of depth perception problems.

[mapt]

Both of these actions are extraordinarily illegal under US law and FAA regulation for a number of reasons. Among them - Permanently blinding a human pilot can be done at 1000 times the range that it takes to melt aluminum, and laser weapons are powerful enough that secondary scatter off shiny surfaces is a real hazard.

We have a civilian airspace, and we have laser weapons, and we have CBP/ICE MAGA militia dabbling in military work. No two of those are safe to have at the same time in the same place.

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

The USA is moving away from concepts like 'laws' and 'illegal' and more towards a system based on vibes and bribes.

[general1465]

> We have a civilian airspace, and we have laser weapons, and we have CBP/ICE MAGA militia dabbling in military work. No two of those are safe to have at the same time in the same place.

Day of the Triffids, but only for small border city.

[sidewndr46]

I'm rather confused by this. The military is a branch of the government. Are they really subject to the laws of the US & the regulations of the FAA? The Posse Comitatus Act is often cited here, but so long as the military force believes they are defending against a foreign force there is no actual prohibition on the use of force.

[blondie9x]

How much do drones like the one shot down cost? Will taxpayers be getting a refund?

[kgwxd]

Obviously, tariffs will cover it.

[october8140]

It could be a soldier who is not a fan of ICE and border protection saw an opportunity and shot it down.

[kgwxd]

If there's 1 person making the choice to fire at stuff in the sky, or somehow only they knew it was a US drone and just didn't say anything, there's a huge problem with intelligence, and the chain of command.

[crusty]

So if you're keeping score, that's one party balloon and one of their own drones. The future looks bright!

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

The party balloon was also ours. It wasn't even an intruder balloon.

[nkrisc]

It only looks bright if the laser is aimed directly at you. But I suppose even that depends on the wavelength used.

[blitzar]

They are not sending their finest