U.S. Army Uses Laser Weapon to Destroy 11 Cartel-Linked Drones at Mexico Border.

The U.S. Army’s AMP-HEL high-energy laser has destroyed 11 cartel-linked drones along the U.S.-Mexico border since entering operations in August, according to U.S. Northern Command on September 4, 2026. The tally shows that AeroVironment’s LOCUST-based system is moving beyond trials into sustained counter-drone use, giving U.S. forces a low-cost way to defeat repeated unmanned threats without relying on missiles or conventional gunfire.

The engagements demonstrate that a directed-energy weapon can repeatedly neutralize small drones during an active security mission. That capability could strengthen layered air defense by preserving expensive interceptors for more demanding targets while providing persistent protection against the growing threat from inexpensive unmanned aircraft.

Related Topic: U.S. Army Uses AMP-HEL Laser Weapon for First Time to Destroy Cartel-Linked Drones at Southern Border

U.S. Army soldier operates the AMP-HEL high-energy laser weapon during counter-UAS operations, using directed energy to detect, track and defeat hostile drones while reducing reliance on conventional kinetic interceptors. (Picture source: U.S. Southern Command)

Joint Task Force–Southern Border first employed AMP-HEL in border protection operations on August 24, 206, and had recorded 11 defeats with the laser by September 4. NORTHCOM also revealed that the task force has defeated more than 300 UAS with kinetic and non-kinetic systems during 2026, including more than 100 during August alone, highlighting the scale of the aerial surveillance and smuggling threat confronting forces along the border.

The latest figure substantially expands the operational record disclosed only days earlier. On August 27, Joint Task Force–Southern Border announced that AMP-HEL had defeated three hostile UAS during operations spanning the late-night hours of August 25 and 26, describing them as aircraft supporting activities that posed a physical threat to U.S. military personnel and Customs and Border Protection partners. The increase from three publicly confirmed defeats to 11 indicates that directed-energy engagements continued after the initial operation, turning what initially appeared to be a limited first-use event into sustained operational employment of an Army laser against unauthorized aircraft associated with real-world illicit activity.

NORTHCOM said the UAS were assessed as connected to illicit operations along the border. Transnational criminal organizations are using drones for activities including smuggling support and surveillance of military and law-enforcement personnel, allowing operators to observe patrol patterns, monitor security positions and improve awareness of movements on the U.S. side of the border. AMP-HEL gives Joint Task Force–Southern Border another layer for defeating those aircraft without relying exclusively on conventional kinetic interceptors. The laser concentrates directed energy on a target to produce a disabling effect, offering a counter-UAS option whose engagement capacity is principally constrained by available electrical power, thermal management, atmospheric conditions and the requirement to maintain sufficient energy on the target.

AeroVironment delivered the first two AMP-HEL prototypes to the U.S. Army in September 2025 under the program’s first increment. Those systems combined the company’s 20-kilowatt-class LOCUST laser weapon with General Motors Defense Infantry Squad Vehicles and underwent government acceptance testing at Yuma Proving Ground before Army personnel trained on the equipment. A second AMP-HEL increment expanded the Army’s mobile laser configurations, with AeroVironment subsequently delivering two LOCUST systems installed on Joint Light Tactical Vehicles. The company said the newer configuration incorporated a larger-aperture beam director intended to improve lethality performance.

The border deployment therefore provides an operational counterpart to the U.S. Army’s rapid prototyping work. The initial three-drone event showed that soldiers could integrate a mobile high-energy laser into an active security mission, while the September 4 total now shows the capability can be used repeatedly as part of a broader counter-UAS architecture. That architecture remains important because lasers do not replace every counter-drone weapon. NORTHCOM’s disclosure that more than 300 UAS have been defeated through a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic means illustrates a layered approach in which sensors, electronic warfare, directed energy, and conventional weapons can be selected according to target behavior, range, environmental conditions, and the threat posed to personnel.

The economics and magazine depth of directed energy are particularly relevant against inexpensive commercial and modified drones. Conventional missiles can provide longer-range or all-weather engagement options, but repeatedly intercepting low-cost UAS with expensive munitions creates an unfavorable cost exchange and consumes finite stocks. A laser can instead conduct successive engagements as long as its power generation and cooling systems sustain operations, making it attractive for defending fixed areas or forces facing persistent drone activity. This is especially significant in missions where numerous small UAS may appear over short periods, forcing defenders to balance lethality, cost, available ammunition and the need to maintain coverage over extended operations.

The operational results arrive as the U.S. Army moves beyond AMP-HEL prototyping toward a larger enduring laser effort. On September 2, AeroVironment announced a $464.8 million Army award for the Enduring-High Energy Laser program, with the company’s LOCUST family selected as the core laser weapon. The award links lessons from systems such as AMP-HEL to an Army effort to institutionalize high-energy lasers as a repeatable counter-UAS capability rather than an experimental technology. That transition also gives the southern-border mission significance for Army modernization because repeated encounters with small UAS allow soldiers to build practical experience in detection, target identification, engagement authorization, beam control, maintenance, and integration with command-and-control networks under operational conditions that controlled trials cannot fully reproduce.

Those lessons can inform wider U.S. Army directed-energy modernization efforts to protect maneuver forces, command posts, logistics sites and air-defense positions from increasingly numerous unmanned threats. More than 8,000 service members are currently assigned to Joint Task Force–Southern Border across approximately 1,954 miles of border terrain. Since the task force assumed the mission in March 2025, NORTHCOM says its personnel have conducted tens of thousands of detection and monitoring patrols and thousands of observation flights while supporting Customs and Border Protection and coordinating some patrol activity with Mexican military personnel.

For the U.S. Army, the most consequential figure in the September 4 update may therefore be the 11 AMP-HEL defeats rather than the first engagement itself. The tally provides unusually concrete evidence that a U.S. Army high-energy laser is accumulating operational engagements against actual unauthorized aircraft, while the broader 300-plus UAS total demonstrates the volume of threats that could justify layered, lower-cost counter-drone weapons. If AMP-HEL continues generating successful engagements, the border mission could become an important operational proving ground for the Army’s wider directed-energy ambitions.

Combined with the U.S. Army’s transition to an emerging enduring high-energy laser capability, the experience suggests laser weapons are moving from developmental counter-UAS experiments to routine employment within layered air defense, with direct implications for force protection and the Army’s ability to sustain defenses against high-volume drone threats.

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Written by Alain Servaes – Chief Editor, Army Recognition Group
Alain Servaes is a former infantry non-commissioned officer and the founder of Army Recognition. With over 20 years in defense journalism, he provides expert analysis on military equipment, NATO operations, and the global defense industry.