FAA has issued a 10-day NOTAM over El Paso, TX and and New Mexico without warning or explanation

[joshjosh]

FAA lifts unprecedented El Paso airspace restrictions after seven hours; 14 flights canceled

Federal officials abruptly closed and then reopened El Paso’s airspace within seven hours, grounding commercial, military and emergency flights while questions remain about the alleged drone activity that prompted the shutdown.

elpasomatters.org

El Paso city councilman says nobody has any idea what's going on, including local military leadership.

What happens in El Paso?

 

[joshjosh]

Well, it's over. Airspace restriction has been lifted effective immediately. Nobody really knows why it was put on or why it was 10 days. Various unnamed sources are reporting things like a possible drone incursion from Mexico, or US forces testing counter-drone technology.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/11/us/faa-el-paso-flights-airport

View article without paywall

removepaywalls.com

 

[publiusr]

Perhaps it is part of the Guthrie kidnapping case...even if it is 300 miles distant. They were looking at the roof of the residence.

Drones might be part of some Bitcoin node or other. I get the feeling the masked individual might have been a groundskeeper put up to meanness by a family member more tech savvy. The stooped posture...plants to obscure a camera?

A blanket...hell, a sticky note or a spray can would make more sense....when I first saw the footage, I thought the assailant had a crowbar...but no tool was in those gloves. The camera was supposed to have been disabled.

This is likely a criminal version of McNamara's Morons...a person with some skills, lots of patience...the oil-rag, not the engineer.

 

[TomS]

Sounds like it was an FAA pressure tactic to get the Army to actually talk to people about the (reported) fact that one of their C-UAS laser systems zapped a birthday balloon without warning anyone that they planned to fire a lethal laser though commercial airspace.

 

[dannydale]

Neunundneunzig luftballons!

 

[TomS]

OK, proper link now. I misunderstood something before, and the actual birthday balloon shootdown was on the border, not at El Paso/Fort Bliss. But that incident doesn't give warm fuzzies about how good the system's target discrimination is, and definitely should raise questions about whether this system is ready for prime time that close to commercial airspace. (Ft Bliss is adjacent to El Paso International)

Airspace closure followed spat over drone-related tests and party balloon shoot-down, sources say

Pentagon officials had undertaken planning to use military technology near Fort Bliss, in El Paso, to practice downing drones.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[joshjosh]

DOD sources now claiming that DHS used a C-UAS DEW to shoot at a balloon without telling anybody, and NORTHCOM is as pissed as the FAA

 

[EmoBirb]

DOD sources now claiming that DHS used a C-UAS DEW to shoot at a balloon without telling anybody, and NORTHCOM is as pissed as the FAA

Ngl, Spec Ops with DEW sounds kinda cool though

 

[publiusr]

Now we know why the cool kids *really* wear sunglasses at night.

More:

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-counter-drone-technologies-evolving-surefire.html

The targeted drone turned out to be a party balloon, though U.S. officials claim that drug cartels based in Mexico have flown drones at the U.S.-Mexico border. The episode highlights the need for counter-drone technologies, the state-of-the-art systems used by the U.S. military, and the challenges to safely and effectively countering drones, which are also known as uncrewed aircraft systems.

I am an aerospace engineer and director of the Counter-UAS Center of Excellence at Oklahoma State University, where we develop and evaluate technologies to detect, identify and counter drone threats. The military laser weapon CBP that personnel used near El Paso is an example of one of three categories of counter-drone technologies: directed energy weapons. The other two are radio frequency jamming and kinetic, or physical, weapons like missiles and nets.

 

[joshjosh]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/us/politics/el-paso-airspace-closure-faa-pentagon.html

DHS will stop using the laser, for now.

 

[martinbayer]

DJT par for the course...

 

[NMaude]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/us/politics/el-paso-airspace-closure-faa-pentagon.html

DHS will stop using the laser, for now.

I won't be surprised if they start playing laser-tag again in the near-future.

 

[GK. Dundas]

DOD sources now claiming that DHS used a C-UAS DEW to shoot at a balloon without telling anybody, and NORTHCOM is as pissed as the FAA

I've been hearing much the same.
The Department of Homeland Security.....the gift that just keeps giving, one slow motion train wreak after another.
DHS , our motto; "Hold our beer".

 

[TomS]

Someone in the Army must be a Brittney Spears fan.

Oops, they did it again. This time, looks like they killed a CBP drone (a Predator or something smaller?) with a laser, apparently without telling people what they are doing. The FAA has closed the airspace over Fort Hancock until June.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/faa-closes-airspace-fort-hancock-texas-after-reported-use-anti-drone-laser-2026-02-27/

 

[TomS]

I won't be surprised if they start playing laser-tag again in the near-future.

Well that's a bit prophetic...

 

[NMaude]

Well that's a bit prophetic...

"Tag, you're it!".

 

[DWG]

Oops, they did it again. This time, looks like they killed a CBP drone (a Predator or something smaller?) with a laser, apparently without telling people what they are doing. The FAA has closed the airspace over Fort Hancock until June.

"He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Department of Whoops way!