Almost as soon as news of the emergency shutdown this morning of El Paso International Airport started spreading like wildfire came word that the measure had been lifted. Conflicting statements since then have made the picture somewhat murky. At one point this was to be a ten-day closure.
Given the airport’s proximity to the Mexican border, reporting that the incident involved possible hostile drone activity launched from the neighboring country would seem plausible. Security officials have claimed multiple border incidents for years now.
Also equally plausible is reporting that some type of counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) technology was either used or demonstrated during the event. The U.S. already has numerous types of C-UAS ready at its disposal and is well known to have been making border defense a prime target for its deployment.
Given the types of C-UAS available to the U.S. it is unsurprising that an entire airport and region would be shutdown out of safety concerns. Multiple types of systems, using kinetic effectors, like directed energy and missiles, could harm not only attacking drones, but also aircraft, personnel, civilians, and infrastructure from falling debris.
It should be noted that airport defense has been one of the primary movers in the exploding development and use of C-UAS for nearly ten years now. In early 2019, British-based news media reported on installation of new counter-drone technology for airport protection. This came on the heels of the grounding of hundreds of flights at Gatwick airport the previous December due to a well publicized drone incident.
The El Paso incident will warrant close monitoring over the next few days, and it will be interesting to see if officials reveal any more details.
Andrew Dardine is lead analyst for Forecast International's Defense Electronic Systems group. He is the primary author of Forecast International's Electronic Warfare Forecast and co-author of Electro-Optical Systems Forecast and C4I Forecast. Andrew is also a regular contributor to FI's Defense & Security Monitor blog, offering insights into developing technologies such as directed-energy and next-generation jamming systems. His analysis of such vital market areas as EO/IR systems and electronic countermeasures technology has been cited in Defense News, Aerospace Daily, and Bloomberg Businessweek, among other news media. He has also written about the electronic defense market for Aviation Week and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
