First posted on Instagram
The U.S. military has deployed ground-based air-defense assets and counter-drone capabilities in and around President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command confirmed, saying the deployment was made at the request of the U.S. Secret Service.
The systems include AN/TWQ-1 Avenger short-range air-defense vehicles, Humvee-mounted launchers carrying up to eight FIM-92 Stinger missiles each, designed to engage low-flying aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and drones. Photographs published by the Palm Beach Daily News and local television stations show two Avengers on a floating barge in Lake Worth Lagoon off the Mar-a-Lago shoreline, with additional systems at the nearby Donald J. Trump International Airport, close to where Air Force One is parked.
NORAD and Northern Command also confirmed the deployment of counter-drone equipment, including a C-UAS Flyway Kit and high-energy lasers. The directed-energy outlet Laser Wars identified a 20-kilowatt Army AMP-HEL laser in an October 31 photograph at the site, describing it as the first publicly known case of the Pentagon fielding a laser weapon to protect a sitting president.
The Secret Service said it "continues to operate in a heightened threat environment" and adapts its protective operations with new tools and methods. In a federal court filing, Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn described the threat environment as "heightened, real, and dynamic" and called the airborne threat at Mar-a-Lago "persistent and substantial." More than 60 aircraft have been intercepted for violating the temporary flight restriction around the estate since January 2025.
Neither the Secret Service nor NORAD has named a specific threat behind the deployment or said how long the systems will remain, and officials have not confirmed any link to tensions with Iran. The deployment comes amid those tensions and after past assassination attempts against Trump, and commentators have also pointed to the November 3 midterm elections and December's G20 summit in South Florida as possible context — none of which officials have confirmed as a reason.
The deployment first made headlines on October 28, 2026, after local television reports out of Palm Beach, and Snopes rated the claim that surface-to-air missile systems had been deployed at Mar-a-Lago as true after emailed confirmations from both NORAD and the Secret Service. Mar-a-Lago already has a round-the-clock temporary flight restriction, and the Federal Aviation Administration is weighing a permanent Special Flight Rules Area to replace it, with no decision announced.