US, Mexico sign statement of intent for UAS, C-UAS marketplace access
The United States and Mexico have signed a non-binding "statement of intent" to allow the Mexican Ministry of Defence access to the US digital marketplace to acquire UAS and C-UAS systems in the fight against transnational organised crime and drug cartels.
Organised crime groups are known to use drones for real-time monitoring of border patrols and to smuggle small loads of synthetic illicit drugs from Mexico into the United States. According to Unmanned Airspace, US intelligence has also found that cartels have begun to equip drones with IEDs, escalating the threat.
The agreement was signed between the Mexican Army chief of staff division General Héctor Ávila Alcocer and US secretary of the Army Daniel Patrick Driscoll.
In a post on X on 16 August, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, wrote that the agreement will ''strengthen our strategic and operational capabilities through defence innovation and new technologies" and will "strengthen our ability to combat cartels and address our shared security challenges".
