[Source: Reuters]

The US Army is testing counter-drone technology in the US-Mexico border area, seeking to ‌sharpen its defenses against the growing threat of drone use by cartels and emulate the rapid battlefield innovation happening in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

At Falcon Peak, a US Northern Command exercise held in September in Arizona, soldiers watched as defense firms demonstrated radars, ​interceptor drones, autonomous gun systems and other technologies designed to detect, track and destroy small unmanned ​aircraft.

Army officials said drones crossing the southern border are typically systems sold commercially and ⁠used by criminals for surveillance linked to their smuggling and human trafficking operations. Brigadier General Brian Filler, deputy ​commander for operations at Joint Task Force

Southern Border, told reporters the military detected 378 drone incursions in the ​previous 30 days and that the trend was increasing.

“We are seeing largely commercial off-the-shelf available drones,” Filler said, adding that most carry surveillance cameras and are often observed alongside cross-border movements.

The US military said earlier this month it had downed 11 cartel drones ​using lasers since deploying the technology along the southern border in August.

Military planners are racing to ​keep pace with lessons from Ukraine, where drones have transformed the battlefield and driven rapid innovation in both offensive and defensive ‌systems.

Military ⁠officials caution that cartel-operated drones are not comparable to the sophisticated battlefield ones seen in Ukraine or the Middle East.

But they say the border offers a valuable operational environment to test equipment, train soldiers and evaluate how systems perform outside controlled laboratory conditions.

The exercise highlighted the Pentagon’s growing embrace of venture-backed defense technology firms. Since ​Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, ​investors have poured billions ⁠of dollars into companies such as Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic and a wave of smaller drone and counter-drone startups seeking military contracts.