Pentagon Looks at Putting 11-Foot Drones in Rio Grande

The Pentagon's latest border tool looks more like a kayak than a cutter, and it may soon be out there in far greater numbers. US defense officials say they're weighing a major expansion of autonomous, solar-powered "Lightfish" boats along the Rio Grande and possibly into the Gulf of Mexico, Reuters reports, after they say a 10-vessel trial helped flag hundreds of attempted crossings and drug runs each month. That includes 100 turnbacks, data show, in which people drop an attempt to cross the border when spotting a Lightfish, per the Independent. They "see that the vessel is waiting there for them, and they know that they've basically been found out," a Defense Department official said.

Built by the San Diego startup Seasats and costing about $240,000 apiece, the 11-foot drones can patrol for months, feeding real-time sensor data into platforms run by firms including Palantir and Anduril, and alerting Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard. US officials, citing President Trump's push on border enforcement and strained human patrols, are considering adding up to 50 more boats and eventually creating a radar "fence" stretching from Texas to Key West.