It was the US with a weapon that it did not know how to use

Until very recently, airspace was understood as a stable domain, regulated almost exclusively by manned civil and military aviation, with clear borders and protocols inherited from conflicts (along with the trauma of 9/11). The emergence of drones has begun to break that balance: first in lthe battlefieldsthen at the borders and now about the cities.

The last example exposes that even simple perception is a trap.

Drone war. Yes, because the accelerated expansion of drones as a military and criminal tool has placed the United States before an uncomfortable paradox– Protect your territory without turning your own airspace into a dangerous testing ground.

For a decade, the Pentagon has developed a sophisticated arsenal of lasers, electronic inhibitors and high-power microwaves to shoot down dronesbut the rules for using them safely over cities full of commercial planes remain diffuse, or even erroneous, creating a gap between military logic and civil reality that is beginning to take its toll.

The El Paso episode. Yesterday, the sudden closure of the El Paso airspace exposed that tension clearly, when the Federal Aviation Administration decreed extreme restrictions without prior warning, paralyzing commercial, medical and military flights within a radius of dozens of kilometers.

The measure, initially planned for ten days, got up within a few hours, but left behind institutional confusionwith local authorities overwhelmed and the feeling that no one had a crystal clear and coherent version of what happened.

Threat or ridicule. Then the contradictions began. While the administration maintained that the closure responded to a drone raid of Mexican cartels, multiple leaks pointed to a different problem: The hasty use of new anti-drone technologies by federal agencies without prior risk assessment to civil aviation.

In this context, the intervention of Customs and Border Protection with a directed energy laser without prior preparation, provided by the Department of Defense, would have been the trigger for an extreme decision adopted by the FAA due to the impossibility of guaranteeing air traffic safety.

It’s a balloon’s fault. The subsequent revelation that the supposed hostile drone was actually a simple party balloon He turned the episode into a symbol of the new times and the risks of improvising in an environment saturated with sensitive technology.

The lack of prior coordination, the lack of information shared between agencies and the speed with which an unprecedented closure was activated reminded many local officials of the hours after 9/11fueling rumors, theories and disproportionate fear among the population. In fact, it slipped the “nuclear” issue.

The border as an involuntary laboratory. El Paso, along with key facilities like Fort Blisshas become a scenario where national security, organized crime and testing of advanced military systems come together.

Although the use of drones by cartels for surveillance and smuggling has been common for years, their constant presence raises a question most disturbing: Why on earth did a known and recurring threat lead to such a drastic reaction this time, when similar incidents had been handled previously without closing the sky?

A problem that becomes a ball. If you will, and beyond the specific incident, the El Paso closure reveals a structural challenge that is just beginning. As more sophisticated drones proliferate and increasingly powerful defenses are deployed, the coexistence between military technology and civil aviation will require clear protocols, real coordination and institutional transparency.

Otherwise, each failed test, or each poorly explained interference, will continue to demonstrate that in the war against drones it is not only important to shoot them down, but also to prevent the remedy from be more dangerous than the threat itself.

Image | FAA, US Army

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