US Senator Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, has written to leaders of the departments of defence, homeland security and transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Attorney General to demand that they immediately address the interagency coordination failures that led to two major incidents last month involving counter-drone high energy laser systems near El Paso and Fort Hancock Texas, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
“The federal interagency coordination process for counter-drone activities is clearly broken,” wrote Sen. Cantwell. “In the past month, federal officials deployed a novel counter-drone high-energy laser near the Texas-Mexico border on multiple occasions. It does not appear these actions served their intended purpose of mitigating specific drone threats. Instead, these incidents highlighted serious process failures that expose the flying public to unacceptable safety risks.”
During a March 4, 2026 classified briefing on the counter-drone incidents, leaders from the defence and homeland security departments as well as the FAA acknowledged serious interagency coordination failures. The El Paso incident was the first known domestic use of a counter-drone laser system conducted outside of a controlled environment and led to a shutdown of the airspace around El Paso and Santa Teresa that was abruptly lifted just hours later after causing some airlines to cancel flights. Two weeks later, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not notify the military about its own drone operations in the defence department’s vicinity, leading to the military downing a CBP drone.
“Both incidents highlight fundamental coordination and communication failings that resulted in unnecessary risks to the national airspace system,” wrote Sen. Cantwell. “This leads me to question who should have authority to use the high-energy laser technology and whether the federal government is prepared to properly execute its responsibilities with state and local authorities on the use of counter-drone technologies and systems that Congress recently granted in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.”
“With the 2026 FIFA World Cup events,” her letter continued, “including six matches that will be hosted in Seattle this June and July – and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics fast approaching, each agency with counter-drone responsibilities needs to be prepared now to act swiftly in the face of any such threat without jeopardising aviation safety.”
The letter called for the agencies to allocate appropriate resources and attention to fix the coordination problems without delay and before a “preventable tragedy” occurs.
Cantwell has requested that the agencies brief the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the actions they have taken or plan to take to fix the interagency coordination process, their plans for implementing the new counter-drone authorities at the state and local level, the results of FAA’s safety risk management analysis of the defence department’s counter-drone high-energy laser technology, and other relevant updates. She added that this briefing should occur no later than March 25, 2026.
For more information
Full letter at the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
Image: Shutterstock
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