2026年9月7日 / 美国东部时间上午9:27 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
得克萨斯州麦卡伦——美军首次使用高能激光武器系统击落可疑无人机还不到两周，军方官员告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，里奥格兰德河谷地区南部边境的试探性无人机数量已下降约75%。
该系统于8月25日和26日首次击落三架无人机，此前经过了数月训练，其中一次训练事件导致美国联邦航空管理局今年早些时候短暂关闭了埃尔帕索机场。军方官员告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，自那以来，美军已与联邦航空管理局建立常态化协调机制，以确保激光不会对平民构成风险。
美军已经拥有干扰装置，可以将每天出现的数十架无人机中的一部分驱离起飞地，但激光武器提供了另一种选择：如果无人机被认定为可疑威胁，可以将其击落。军方官员表示，今年以来，美军已拦截300架与贩毒集团有关联的无人机，其中11架是在10天内由激光武器击落的。
“如果只是将无人机驱离，它们可能会再次返回，或是暂时失效，但真正改变游戏规则的是确保该工具无法再被用来对付我们，”部署在边境的第130机动增强旅指挥官、陆军上校罗伯特·费利西奥说道。
费利西奥在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时表示，激光武器投入使用后，无人机活动出现了“显著”变化。他没有透露其部队日常观测到的无人机数量，但美国北方司令部负责人、空军上将格雷戈里·吉约2024年曾对议员表示，南部边境每月约有1000次无人机越界事件。
费利西奥和其他军方官员承认，近期无人机活动下降可能还有其他因素，比如贩毒集团更换了路线，但这一下降趋势恰好出现在激光武器投入使用之后。
美国陆军多用途高能激光系统 国防部
激光武器如何运作？
在哥伦比亚广播公司新闻周五独家观看的一次系统测试中，士兵们在边境围墙附近的空地上放飞了一架小型四旋翼无人机。在一辆搭载激光武器的车辆内，其他士兵通过Xbox控制器和类似iPad设备上显示的摄像头画面追踪无人机。锁定目标无人机后，他们启动激光将其击落。
国防部
唯一可见的效果是激光击中无人机将其击落时，出现一道短暂的闪光。测试过程中，激光并未呈现出长条形连续光束，而是一道几乎瞬间出现的不可见热光束，精准击中无人机的特定点位。回收的无人机可见螺旋桨受损、电池丢失，但仍可辨认。
本次测试中陆军使用的激光武器是 AeroVironment 公司生产的 LOCUST 系统的衍生型号。美军南部边境联合特遣部队的一位发言人表示，边境沿线已部署“多套”该系统，且就在本周，陆军首次授予高能激光武器合同——向 AeroVironment 公司拨款4.65亿美元。
陆军中尉欧文·法克是该系统的操作人员之一，他表示，对于许多玩着电子游戏长大的士兵来说，使用Xbox控制器操控系统非常直观。
并非万能良方，但仍是有效工具
激光武器并非应对无人机的万能解决方案，部分原因是在降雨或雾气等大气环境下，光束能量会被削弱，导致效果下降。海军最高官员达里尔·考德尔上将本周在《华盛顿邮报》发表专栏文章，呼吁加大对高能激光武器的投入，称尽管其使用存在一定限制，但仍是一款实用的装备。
包括考德尔在内的官员认为，该系统具有成本效益。据军事激光技术通讯《激光战争》援引预算文件显示，单台激光武器的成本约为1740万至2500万美元。AeroVironment 公司表示，每发射一次仅需约3美元。而其他类型的防空系统，每枚拦截弹的成本就高达数百万美元。
除激光系统自身的局限性外，在平民附近使用该武器还存在风险。例如，哥伦比亚广播公司新闻今年2月曾报道，联邦航空管理局官员最初对在民用航空器附近使用激光武器表示担忧，因为激光误击飞机会引发灾难性后果。
费利西奥表示，军方已与联邦航空管理局协调，“确保该技术的使用安全”，包括在激光武器使用前后核查联邦航空管理局的相关要求。他没有透露近期击落无人机的具体位置，但表示美国政府也在与墨西哥当局协调追踪潜在威胁。
贩毒集团无人机构成的威胁类型
军方官员告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，贩毒集团使用无人机的原因之一，是可以侦察美军和执法人员的部署位置，从而在偷运人员或毒品过境时选择避开的区域。这类无人机尺寸各异，但通常为小型四旋翼机型。
部署在边境的马萨诸塞州国民警卫队第211宪兵营指挥官、陆军中校雷·理查兹表示，干扰无人机活动会对贩毒集团造成财务打击。
“想想看，这种能力下降75%，关联的资金投入也会相应减少——我认为，只要能对贩毒集团造成破坏，这就是其中至关重要的一环，”理查兹在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时说道。
根据美国国土安全部资助的国家反恐创新、技术与教育中心近期发布的一份报告，贩毒集团还在墨西哥境内使用武装无人机攻击敌对帮派。报告显示，2021年至2025年间，此类事件共发生221起，造成墨西哥不同地区77人死亡。
军方正在评估这类威胁对边境沿线约8000名美军士兵和执法人员构成的风险。
费利西奥和理查兹带哥伦比亚广播公司新闻来到里奥格兰德河谷的一处观景台，展示美军驻地与无人机起飞区域之间的距离有多近。记者并未看到无人机，但被告知在他们抵达前，士兵曾三次追踪到同一架无人机飞过该观景台附近。
费利西奥表示，他们有时会反复看到同一架无人机出现，这正是激光武器发挥作用的场景。
“如果我只是不断将它驱离，它还会再次回来——如果它是即时威胁，我会将其击落，但从长远来看，我只是在纵容贩毒集团继续使用这架无人机，而如果我能用激光武器将其摧毁，那这架无人机就彻底报废了，”费利西奥说道。“我认为，这才是这项技术真正发挥巨大作用的地方。”
Drone activity at U.S.-Mexico border drops 75% after U.S. uses laser weapon, military says
September 7, 2026 / 9:27 AM EDT / CBS News
McAllen, Texas — Less than two weeks after the military first used a high-energy laser weapon system to down suspicious drones, military officials told CBS News there has been a roughly 75% decrease in the number of drones probing the southern border in the Rio Grande Valley.
The system made its debut by taking down three drones on Aug. 25 and 26 after months of training that included an episode that caused the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly shut down El Paso’s airport earlier this year. Since then, military officials told CBS News there is regular coordination with the FAA to ensure the laser does not pose a risk to civilians.
The U.S. military already has tools that use jamming to send some of the dozens of drones that appear daily back to where they came from, but the laser gives the option to bring a drone down if it is a suspected threat. Since the beginning of the year, the military has stopped 300 drones officials say are linked to cartels, including eleven the laser took down over a span of ten days.
“When you just send it back and then it comes back up or is defeated temporarily, but the game changer is ensuring that that tool can’t be used again against you,” said Army Col. Robert Felicio, commander of the 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade that’s deployed to the border.
Felicio in an interview with CBS News said there has been a “significant” change in activity since the laser entered the picture. He didn’t disclose the daily number of drones his unit sees but Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, the head of U.S. Northern Command, told lawmakers in 2024 there are approximately 1,000 drone incursions at the southern border each month.
Felicio and other military officials acknowledged the recent drop may have also been caused by other variables, like the cartels finding different routes, but it occurred after the laser’s debut.
The Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser System Defense Department
How does the laser work?
During a test of the system CBS News viewed exclusively on Friday, soldiers sent up a small quadcopter drone over an empty field near the border wall. Inside a vehicle with the laser mounted on top of it, other soldiers tracked the drone using an Xbox controller and a camera feed displayed on an i-pad-like device. Once they had the target drone in sight, they deployed the laser to zap it.
Freeze frame during a test of the laser against a small drone. Defense Department
The only visible effect was a brief flash of light when the beam hit the drone to bring it down. During the test, the laser did not appear as a long continuous light but rather an invisible almost instantaneous heat beam that hit precise points on the drone. When the drone was recovered, it had a damaged propeller and was missing its battery but was still identifiable.
The laser the Army used in the test is a version of a system called LOCUST produced by the company AeroVironment. A spokesperson for the military’s Joint Task Force Southern Border said there are “multiple” of the systems along the border and just this week, the Army awarded its first-ever contract for high energy lasers — $465 million to AeroVironment.
Army Lieutenant Owen Farquer, who is one of the operators of the system, said using the X-Box controller has been intuitive for many of the soldiers who grew up playing video games.
Not a silver bullet but is another tool
The laser is not a silver bullet solution for countering drones, in part because they’re less effective if there are atmospherics like rain or vapor that can reduce the beam’s power. The Navy’s top officer Admiral Daryl Caudle wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post this week calling for more investment in high energy laser weapons because they’re another tool even if there are some limits to their use.
Officials, like Caudle, argue it is a cost-effective system. An individual unit may cost around $17.4 to $25 million, according to Laser Wars, a Substack about military laser technology, citing budget documents. Each shot only costs around $3, according to AeroVironment. Other types of air defense systems have interceptors that each cost millions of dollars.
In addition to the laser system’s own limitations, there are risks to using it near civilians. For instance, CBS News reported in February that FAA officials had initially raised concerns about using the laser near civilian aircraft because a misfire that hits a plane would cause an instant disaster.
Felicio said there is coordination with the FAA to “ensure this technology is employed safely,” including checking the requirements the FAA has before and after the use of the laser. He didn’t disclose which side of the border the recent take downs occurred but said the U.S. government is also coordinating with Mexican authorities on tracking potential threats.
The type of threat drones from cartels pose
Officials told CBS News one of the reasons the cartels use drones, which can vary in size but generally look like small quadcopters, is to survey where U.S. service members and law enforcement are so they know which areas to avoid when smuggling people or drugs across.
Army Lt. Col. Ray Richards, the head of the 211th Military Police Battalion from the Massachusetts National Guard that is deployed to the border, said disrupting the drones has a financial impact on the cartels.
“When you think of 75% reduction of that capability and how that spreads based on X amount of dollars are tied to that — I think when you talk about disruption to the cartels, that is a huge part of that story,” Richards told CBS News.
The cartels are also using armed drones inside Mexico to attack rival groups, according to a recent report from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, which is funded by the Department of Homeland Security. The report found that there have been 221 incidents between 2021 and 2025 that resulted in 77 fatalities in different areas of Mexico.
Military officials are weighing the threat that could pose to the roughly 8,000 U.S. service members along the border and to law enforcement personnel.
Felicio and Richards took CBS News to an overlook in the Rio Grande Valley to illustrate how little separation there is between where U.S. personnel are posted and where the drones come from. CBS News did not see any drones but was told that service members tracked the same drone passing near the overlook three different times before we arrived.
Felicio said they sometimes see the same drones over and over again, which is where the laser could make a difference.
“if I just keep making it go back and then it comes back again – if it’s an immediate threat, I’m getting rid of it, but long term, I’m just allowing the cartel to continue to use that thing, whereas if I am able to use the laser, now that’s gone,” Felicio said. “That’s, I think, really where this is making a huge difference.”