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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   3058 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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Does anyone have any theories with the US shutting down airspace with no warning over El Paso, Texas? And similarly over the southern New Mexico border?

Overflight of the zone above 18k feet is legal, which makes jumping to the "someone-lost-a-MANPADS-in-Juarez"-theory the obvious choice. Both the Stinger and the Verba have an effective ceiling a little under 18k feet. The interesting questions is how hard do you have to kick the cartels for them to fire one at everything that flies?

The other option would be counter-drone operations in that airspace, probably also against the cartels and their drone activity. But stranding tens of expensive commercial aircraft for 10 days would be a little absurd for something that should be easy to plan...

Piecing together what I can find:

Apparently the Department of War has been testing GPS jamming and directed energy systems in a base near El Paso. The FAA got spooked about how it is impacting instruments for aircraft and after a test (which involved hitting a birthday balloon with a laser) they pushed on the DOW to stop it. DOW would not stop it and the FAA shut down airspace to show how serious they were. When Trump woke up in the morning and learned about it, he told them to knock it off and airspace restrictions are lifted now.

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