The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday gave the military the green light to use high-energy lasers to shoot down suspected drones in U.S. airspace, ending a two-month standoff over whether the weapons endangered airplanes.
Bryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator, said in a statement that the F.A.A. had completed a safety assessment of the anti-drone systems used by the military and had “determined that these systems do not present an increased risk to the flying public.”
The decision was a striking about-face for the F.A.A., which twice shut down swaths of airspace over the Texas border with Mexico in February after the lasers were deployed without the agency’s approval.
The statement did not address whether the agency had determined that the high-energy lasers posed no physical risk to aircraft, or whether the safety determination was based on how the lasers were being deployed. But the F.A.A. determined that the risk would be minimal even if the laser came into contact with an airplane, according to an agency official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The F.A.A. is expected to issue an advisory to pilots operating in the vicinity of the southern border to be aware of increased anti-drone laser use in the area, according to a transportation official.
The F.A.A.’s decision allows the Pentagon and other agencies to use the high-energy lasers liberally along the southern border, where they have emerged as a key tool in the Trump administration’s efforts to take out drones used by drug cartels based in Mexico and elsewhere. It was not clear if the agreement, announced jointly with the Defense Department, would quiet concerns among lawmakers that the F.A.A. was being pressured into approving the Pentagon’s plans to use the lasers. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees aviation, has requested a briefing from the Pentagon and F.A.A. about what led to the agreement, an aide said.
The Pentagon has also floated plans to use the laser system at Fort McNair, a military base in Washington where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reside, after detecting unusual drone activity in the area.
Federal law requires the Pentagon to coordinate with the heads of the Transportation Department and the F.A.A. before rolling out new technology to disable or destroy drones. But for months, the agencies were at odds over whether that meant the military needed to secure F.A.A. permission before using them.
The episodes that prompted the public standoff were further complicated by the involvement of Customs and Border Protection officials and equipment.
On Feb. 10, the F.A.A. closed the airspace over El Paso up to 18,000 feet after C.B.P. officials fired a high-energy laser on loan from the Pentagon at what turned out to be a metallic balloon. Though the closure was initially supposed to last for 10 days, the F.A.A. lifted its restrictions over El Paso hours later, under pressure from the White House. The agency left in place a parallel restriction over a swath of eastern New Mexico for several more days.
Federal law requires the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate with the F.A.A. in a manner similar to the Pentagon.
Later in February, the F.A.A. closed air travel over the town of Fort Hancock, Texas, after soldiers used a high-energy laser to shoot down a drone that was later determined to have been flown by C.B.P.
The closures exacerbated long-simmering tensions between the F.A.A. and the military, which had been at odds for more than a year over safe use of the skies, particularly over major metro areas.
In the aftermath of last year’s midair collision between a commercial jet and an Army Black Hawk over Ronald Reagan National Airport, Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, took steps to restrict military aircraft in the area, which Defense Department officials tried to sidestep.
Discussions between the agencies over the Pentagon’s plans to use high-energy lasers against drones played out over much of the same period. The F.A.A. had been asking to review the military’s data, and for an opportunity to conduct its own tests of the technology. The Pentagon had not satisfied its requests before military and immigration enforcement officials began using the lasers over Texas in February.
Early last month, F.A.A. and Pentagon officials met at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for a demonstration of the laser system conducted by AeroVironment, the firm that manufactured the technology.
It was in the aftermath of that testing that the F.A.A. and the Defense Department completed a safety assessment, Mr. Bedford and Army Brigadier Gen. Matt Ross said in their joint statement on Friday.
“By working hand-in-hand with the F.A.A. and our interagency partners, the Department of War is proving that these cutting-edge capabilities are safe, effective, and ready to protect all air travelers from illicit drone use in the national airspace,” Mr. Ross said in the statement.
Karoun Demirjian is a breaking news reporter for The Times.
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