Lasers used to shoot down unmanned drones will be tested for safety this weekend at White Sands Missile Range in New Mex

[womanofthehills]

Lasers used to shoot down unmanned drones will be tested for safety this weekend at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, a Department of Defense-led anti-drone task force announced Friday. “This is a critical step in making sure our warfighters have the most advanced tools to defend the homeland,” said U.S. Army Brig. General Matt Ross, director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401. The Pentagon-led task force said the tests on Saturday and Sunday are meant to alleviate worries about how the lasers are used. The task force did not announce details about the specific weapons or tests.

Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-03-06/anti-drone-laser-weapons-tests-20975376.html
Source - Stars and Stripes

[Blues Heron]

1. How safe can they be if they can torch a drone. Not exactly a cat toy

[displacedvermoter]

2. Surprised they aren't testing them

over Alberquerque, to get real wartime conditions, it being a Blue City and all.

[vanessa_ca]

3. Until they start painting drones with reflective paint or some other reflective coating.

Or send in a swarm of high-flying and low-flying drones. Then again, what do I know?

[Kid Berwyn]

4. Wonder if that's what shut down El Paso airport?

Lawmakers say U.S. military used laser to take down Border Protection drone in Texas

The Federal Aviation Administration closed more airspace near El Paso in response to the incident, officials said.

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
FEB. 26, 2026

FORT HANCOCK, Texas — The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a Customs and Border Protection drone, according to members of Congress, and the Federal Aviation Administration responded by closing more airspace near El Paso.

Just over two weeks ago, the FAA shut down the El Paso airport and the surrounding area after another use of an anti-drone laser. This time, commercial flights are not affected by the expanded airspace closure over Fort Hancock.

Rep. Rick Larsen and several other top Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee said they were notified through official channels.

“Our 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,” Larsen and the other representatives wrote. “We said months ago that the White House’s decision to sidestep a bipartisan, tri-committee bill to appropriately train C-UAS operators and address the lack of coordination between the Pentagon, DHS and the FAA was a short-sighted idea. Now, we’re seeing the result of its incompetence.”

Continues…

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/26/texas-el-paso-border-drone-laser-airspace-closure/

[lapfog_1]

5. lets see... drone flies over "protected area"

releases a few hundred mylar balloons with CO2 cartridge attachments that inflate on deployment.

Every balloon releases thin mylar strips into the atmosphere thus increasing their radar signature.

Ground based laser ( the size of a small railroad car ) shoots at what?

Hundreds of real drones with bombs are mixed in with the chaff.

What could possibly go wrong?

Cost of total drone package... $200,000 usd
Cost of laser system plus the infrastructure it was meant to protect... $1Billion.

Who wins this war?

[Goonch]

6. ;-{).......

[harumph]

7. That would be "intraplanetary" no?

"inter" would be between planets.

[Goonch]

8. War of the Worlds