Imagine a scene like an action movie: American border services usage the state-of-the-art Pentagon laser weapons to knock out drones of Mexican drug cartels.
Does that sound dangerous? It would have been if it wasn't for the fact that the shooting down objects turned out to be... simple organization balloons. And all this fun led to an global airport closing.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an incidental has late occurred on the American-Mexican border that exposed the deficiency of communication between key agencies in the US. The main character of this confusion was the advanced LOCUST laser weapon strategy (owned by the Pentagon), which was decided to be utilized by Customs and Border Protection agents (CBP; U.S. Customs and Border Protection).
Star Wars in Texas
CBP agents, allegedly convinced that they were dealing with a swarm of drones belonging to Mexican cartels, launched a laser system. The problem is that they did it against clear warnings from the national Aviation Administration (FAA), which is liable for safety in the American sky.
When the head of the FAA, Bryan Bedford, learned that CBP had ignored his ban and was playing with high-power lasers close the civilian air corridors, he made a drastic decision. In immediate mode, he closed the airspace within 11 miles (about 17 km) around El Paso global Airport. This resulted in cancelled flights, delays and gigantic communication chaos. Worse still, neither the White home nor the Department of Homeland safety knew about the full operation.
Expensive bursting of balloons
The best (or worst – depends on whose perspective) came later. According to anonymous sources of the "Wall Street Journal", a preliminary analysis of the remains of the shot down "enemy objects" showed that the Pentagon's state-of-the-art laser was targeted... by simple helem pumped organization balloons that most likely escaped individual from the organization and drifted over the border.
Shortly after CBP agents completed their balloon shooting operation, the FAA reopened airspace – much earlier than the first 10-day contingency plan had foreseen.
The incident, although it sounds comical, sparked rage in the American Senate. It has been noted that institutions with powerful weapons (like lasers capable of blinding civilian aviation pilots) are incapable to communicate with each another at the basic operational level. It is possible that the military and border services will effort to sweep this embarrassing fall under the carpet, but thanks to leaks from the Wall Street Journal, fiber-optic lasers have just gained a completely fresh – powerfully organization – application.
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