The United States Army and US Northern Command spent most of September testing counter-drone equipment at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, roughly seven miles from the Mexico–United States border, in an exercise called Falcon Peak 26.2. Breaking Defense, a US defence trade outlet, reported the exercise ran from 31 August to 25 September and was NORTHCOM’s fourth and biggest counter-drone drill, held as the Pentagon reports a rise in cartel drone flights into US airspace.
Key facts
- Falcon Peak 26.2 brought together NORTHCOM, its subordinate Joint Task Force-Southern Border (JTF-SB), the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Innovation Unit and the Army’s Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF 401), with contracts to be awarded soon after, according to Breaking Defense.
- Over the previous 30 days there were 378 detections, 75 turnbacks, 15 engagements and one captured drone. The outlets disagree on who released that count: Breaking Defense credits it to Maj Gen Curtis Taylor, JTF-SB commanding general, at a briefing on 24 September, while FBC News and EconoTimes attribute the same 378 figure to Air Force Brig Gen Brian Filler, the task force’s deputy commanding general for operations. One America News Network describes it only as nearly 400 incursions over a recent 30-day period and credits the drone-type breakdown to the Department of War.
- The US military said earlier in October that it had destroyed 11 cartel drones with laser systems since deploying the technology to the border in August, FBC News reported.
- A dozen vendors demonstrated systems across three lanes: three for sensing, five for kinetic interceptors and four for ballistic take-downs, Breaking Defense reported.
Why it matters
Military officials say the border is not a like-for-like comparison with Ukraine, but it gives them somewhere to test equipment, train soldiers and see how systems behave outside a laboratory, FBC News reported. Taylor said open-source material points to growing use of lethal drones in cartel violence in Mexico, and that commanders are concerned about lessons from Russia and Ukraine spreading into the cartel fight in the hemisphere.
Lt Cmdr Lauren Cole, JTF-SB deputy director of public affairs, told reporters near the border wall that narco-terrorist cartels are evolving and enhancing how they use drones, using different tactics in different places, according to Breaking Defense. She said staying ahead of that is the purpose of exercises like Falcon Peak.
Why Fiji readers should care
Nothing in Arizona resembles Fiji’s security picture, and this is a world brief rather than a local story. The relevance is narrower and more practical. The kit in the Yuma lanes — handheld jammers, radars tuned to very small radar cross-sections, shotgun rounds — is cheap, exportable equipment built against the mass-market quadcopter sold in any consumer electronics market, and the doctrine Washington settles on is usually the template partner forces are later offered. Fiji’s own files are where that lands: police have an active transnational drug case in which six persons of interest have been named over missing cocaine, the same category of network US commanders say is now flying drones over their southern border, and Fiji is still shopping for defence partners after Fiji and India held a second round of defence talks that ended without a signed agreement. Counter-drone gear is among the cheapest items on any such list, and the price and the playbook are both being set at exercises like this one.
The numbers behind the exercise
What is flying
“We are seeing largely commercial off-the-shelf available drones,” Filler said, according to FBC News, adding that most carry surveillance cameras and are often seen alongside cross-border movements. Officials said these are mostly Group 1 quadcopters used for surveillance tied to smuggling and human trafficking.
Why detections are rising
Brig Gen Jason Rueschhoff, NORTHCOM’s operations director, said detections have risen partly because JIATF 401 brought extra capability to the region, and that more detections mean better protection and better data, Breaking Defense reported. Filler told reporters on 24 September that he did not have the numbers committed to memory but that the trend was increasing at a noticeable rate.
Kills and captures
Taylor said a laser engagement on 24 September downed two cartel drones, and that the single capture was carried out by a cyber takedown system; both he and Filler declined to say more about it. OANN put the laser kills in a wider frame, reporting hundreds of targets neutralised over the course of the year.
What was tested in the desert
Breaking Defense described reporters, vendors and soldiers working in heat above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with wind-blown dust getting into equipment.
Sensing and directed energy
Named sensing kit included Teledyne FLIR’s counter-drone radar Cerberus. OANN reported that the evaluations also covered non-kinetic electronic warfare tools and directed-energy weapons, and that the quadcopters’ small radar cross-sections make them hard to track with traditional infrastructure.
Guns and interceptors
Other named systems were Allen Control Systems’ Bullfrog automated gun, Harmattan AI’s hit-to-kill interceptor GOBI and Genesis Arms’ GEN-12, a magazine-fed 12-gauge shotgun. Reporters were shown only the Teledyne FLIR radar and the GEN-12, which took down three test drones over three days.
What the desert is teaching vendors
Callie Roth, an executive at Harmattan AI, said the sustained desert deployment is teaching the company about battery endurance and whether dust degrades its system over time.
The Ukraine lesson, and the money
Brig Gen Matt Ross said the Army should not merely admire how fast Ukrainian forces modify technology day to day and week to week, but should replicate that process, EconoTimes reported. FBC News said the exercise showed the Pentagon’s growing embrace of venture-backed defence firms, with billions invested since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine in companies including Anduril, Shield AI and Saronic, plus smaller drone and counter-drone startups chasing military contracts.
Breaking Defense reported that avoiding vendor lock and leaving room for extra sensors and upgrades are critical considerations, and that the next step for the task force is moving from turnbacks to engagements and then captures. Fiji News continues to follow international security developments in its World Brief coverage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a drone “turnback”, and how is it done?
According to Breaking Defense, a turnback is when a counter-drone device cuts the link between a drone and its operator, so the aircraft automatically limps back to where it came from. The outlet reported that turnbacks at the border are achieved with devices such as DZYNE’s Dronebuster, a handheld unit that uses radio frequency and GPS jamming to force a drone to land or return.
Have any cartel drones crossing into the US carried weapons?
Maj Gen Curtis Taylor said the task force and its partners have not seen any drone with a lethal payload cross the border to date, Breaking Defense reported, though he added that the possibility exists.
What is in the Anduril flyaway kit NORTHCOM showed off?
Breaking Defense reported the kit combines the Heimdal 360-degree sensor, Anvil drone interceptors, an electromagnetic warfare effector called Pulsar, an AI-enabled infrared system called the Wisp, and Ghost-X reconnaissance drones. NORTHCOM purchased the kit last autumn, and it was demonstrated on the final day of the exercise, 25 September.
Which vendor at the exercise recently listed on the stock market?
EconoTimes reported that Powerus, which demonstrated an interceptor drone at Falcon Peak, went public on Thursday through a merger with a company backed by sons of US President Donald Trump. EconoTimes did not give a valuation for the deal.
