An anti-drone laser developed by Ukraine gives some context to the airspace closure over El Paso on Wednesday. As the FAA was sterilizing the El Paso airspace, Ukrainian military officials and some engineers were giving journalists a live demonstration of a laser weapon that straps to the roof of a pickup truck and zapped a drone from hundreds of yards away. The demonstration was witnessed by journalists from the Atlantic. It’s not clear who else was on hand. The Sunray system was developed to counter a plague of drones that wreak havoc on Ukraine every night. The attacks usually include hundreds of kamikaze drones that explode on impact and have targeted everything from power plants to passenger trains.
According to the Atlantic, Ukraine put together Sunray for a few million dollars and they expect to mass-produce it for several hundred thousand dollars a copy. The system appears to function automatically, using cameras mounted on a telescope-like body to target the drones, and an operator orders it to fire the invisible beam of light at the right moment. The test drone in this case caught fire and dropped out of its hover, the magazine said.
US military is prohibited, by law, from using lethal force on US soil against a non-military target, so the Pentagon loaned an anti-drone laser to US Customs and Border Patrol, who did use it.
A prudent FAA administrator might be concerned about the safety of GA pilots and aircraft anywhere within 100nm of the US border, i.e. CBP notional operating area.