The North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command said in a statement that the operation took place late Tuesday and early Wednesday and used the Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser.

The military did not give the precise location of the strikes nor make clear whether it took place over U.S. or Mexican territory. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said any unilateral U.S. action on Mexican soil would be a grave breach of her country’s sovereignty.

The military said the drones posed “a physical threat” to U.S. military and U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel.

“Cartel networks are increasingly employing unmanned aircraft systems to facilitate illicit human-smuggling and actively spy on our personnel and law enforcement partners,” Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, the commander of Joint Task Force–Southern Border, said in a statement.

The announcement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to clamp down on immigration and cartels, seeking to fulfill promises from his 2024 presidential campaign.

Since its establishment in 2025, the border task force has conducted tens of thousands of detection and monitoring patrols and thousands of observation flights, the task force said.

The military did not specify the manufacturer of the laser system.

AeroVironment Inc delivered its first two multi-purpose high-energy lasers to the U.S. Army last summer. The U.S. Army has previously deployed AeroVironment Inc’s LOCUST system. The deployment of that system led to a seven-hour airspace shutdown near Texas’ El Paso International Airport earlier this year.

In February, the military accidentally shot down a U.S. government drone using a laser-based anti-drone system, congressional aides told Reuters at the time.

U.S. security officials have expressed concern about the use of drones by Mexican cartels, which mostly employ crudely adapted versions of off-the-shelf models to drop drug packages or surveil trafficking routes.

In parts of Mexico farther from the U.S. border, cartels have used drones to drop explosives in deadly attacks. U.S. and Mexican authorities are working together to combat the rise of drones in the border region.

The United States has supplied large quantities of weapons to allies while also using munitions in its own military operations, raising concerns about inventories of key air-defense and precision-guided weapons, and increasing pressure on contractors to boost output.

Two people briefed on the meeting said it ran longer than expected because everyone was given time to speak. The sources said Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg at times pushed back on industry claims about production progress, citing delays on key programs.

One source said the initial message to executives was “you’re not doing enough.” By the end, the tone had shifted toward cooperation, with officials saying the goal was to “get on a war footing” and work together to speed up production.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for details on the meeting and the topics discussed.

The meeting marks the second White House gathering with chief executives of major defense firms focused on ramping up weapons production. A March meeting included the CEOs and other officials from BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corp, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace and L3Harris Technologies, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Pentagon negotiators are pressing contractors to move much faster, with tentative production agreements struck earlier this year at the center of those efforts.

The agreements include a deal with Lockheed Martin to triple production of Patriot interceptors and quadruple output of THAAD interceptors, which are used to shoot down ballistic missiles. Separate multiyear deals with RTX aim to boost production of Tomahawk cruise missiles and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. The deals, announced as “framework agreements,” have yet to be converted into contracts.

Five defense industry executives, speaking on condition of anonymity, welcomed the agreements, but said Congress must first appropriate funding before companies can invest more heavily in components and production capacity. Investing before receiving government payments under the agreements would weigh on free cash flow and could hurt second-half earnings, they said.

The administration has steadily increased pressure on defense contractors to prioritize production over shareholder payouts. Trump signed an executive order in January to identify contractors deemed to be underperforming on government contracts while continuing to distribute profits to shareholders.

GM Defense, the automaker’s defense ‌business unit, and Lockheed have said the U.S. Department of Defense helped facilitate a partnership between the two companies because of growing demand for additional production capacity.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this month approved its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, backing total defense spending of $1.15 trillion and providing multiyear procurement authority for several types of munitions and weapons. The bill is not expected to become law until autumn, although separate appropriations or supplemental funding could come sooner.

Demand for air defense systems has surged among the United States and its allies amid heightened geopolitical tensions and the conflict in Iran.

Funding for Trump’s marquee but controversial $185 billion “Golden Dome” missile defense shield is expected to be included in the budget request as well as Lockheed Martin F-35 jets and warships.

Procurement of Virginia-class submarines made by General Dynamics, and Huntington Ingalls Industries as well as other top shipbuilding priorities is expected.

Last year, Trump asked Congress for a national defense budget of $892.6 billion then added $150 billion through a supplemental budget request, sending the total price tag over $1 trillion for the first time in history.

While the budget request framework for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2027 is set to be unveiled on Friday, a Pentagon official said more details on the defense budget will be announced on April 21.

Earlier this year, the administration was contemplating whether the $1.5 trillion budget request could be in the form of a $900 billion national security budget, with a $400 billion to $600 billion additional request, similar to the structure used in 2026.

The administration plans to use funds for more weapons production in the hopes of deterring Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region and to rebuild weapons stocks depleted by conflicts in Israel, Iran and Ukraine.

The budget request will be debated in Congress in the coming weeks and months.

Amid cornfields and horse farms 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Columbus, Ohio, the defense tech start-up is expecting its $1 billion Arsenal-1 autonomous systems manufacturing campus to employ more than 4,000 people over the next decade, starting with roughly 250 by the end of this year, officials said on Thursday.

Anduril is one of a new but growing group of small defense firms hoping to win lucrative Pentagon contracts for next-generation weapons. The Trump administration hopes the newer firms will help upend weapons manufacturing by delivering cutting-edge technology more quickly and at a lower cost.

Matt Grimm, Anduril’s co-founder and chief operating officer, said its approach to manufacturing differs fundamentally from traditional defense contractors.

Rather than designing products first and worrying about production later, the company bakes manufacturability in from Day 1 — choosing commercial materials such as aluminum over titanium, using composite techniques borrowed from the recreational boat industry and selecting a commercial business jet engine for the Fury program specifically because of its well-established supply chain and maintenance ecosystem.

Production of the company’s Fury autonomous aircraft will be the first to launch at the facility. The Fury is Anduril’s entrant for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program — part of an Air Force plan for a next-generation family of systems, an effort to equip crewed fighter jets and other planes with an uncrewed platform that would fly alongside the human pilots.

“From the very first prototype, we’ve been working with our engineers on every single build, thinking, how do we design it for production?” Grimm said.

Anduril said its Roadrunner interceptor, Barracuda cruise missile family and a classified program were all expected to be produced at the new factory by year-end.

The company said it is already operating production facilities in Mississippi, Australia, Rhode Island, Colorado, Atlanta, North Carolina and Southern California.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Ohio; Editing by Chris Sanders, Rod Nickel)