I guess now they are going to resort to David Drier's plan?
Posted on 01/25/2005 5:08:59 PM PST by SandRat
After nearly a year in operation, the United States is pulling its Unmanned Aerial Vehicles off the Arizona border, grounding the drone planes to weigh their effectiveness.
The two UAVs - RQ-5 Hunters made by Northrop Grumman Corp that can fly up to 100 mph for half a day - cost $1 million apiece and were introduced into the Arizona desert in October, said Mario Villarreal, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, D.C.
The two Hunter planes succeeded two Israeli-made Hermes 450s that cost about $2 million each and helped nab 965 illegal entrants and about 850 pounds of marijuana, said Andrea Zortman, spokeswoman for the agency's Tucson sector. The Hermes started flying in April 2003 as part of the Arizona Border Control Initiative.
By comparison, the Hunters helped apprehend 287 illegal border crossers and helped seize 1,889 pounds of marijuana from Oct. 1 to Jan. 23, she said.
In all, the Border Patrol made nearly 500,000 apprehensions in the Tucson Sector last fiscal year.
Zortman attributed the low number of apprehensions to the slow season for illegal migration but said the videos the drones recorded helped prosecute drug traffickers.
The Border Patrol has not decided when to start the program back up, though it will likely resume this year, Villarreal said.
The unmanned aerial vehicles were a popular choice last year when the agency launched its $15 million Arizona Border Control Initiative to help secure the state's border with Mexico.
With cameras and night vision, the drones joined 260 new agents and four new helicopters in Arizona and were assigned the task of patrolling areas that were difficult for agents on the ground to reach. Agents then monitored the downloaded data and sent the information out to agents to respond in desert areas that were easier to reach.
The drones did not do the job of old-fashioned "boots on the ground" patrol work, said Mike Albon, spokesman for National Border Patrol Council, Local 2544, the local union.
Noting that agents and manned air assets such as the agency's Black Hawk helicopters seized more than 148,000 pounds of marijuana and apprehended more than 100,000 people in the same time frame, Albon suggested the agency might be better served by spending its budget for unmanned aerial vehicles on more agents and better equipment.
Just perfect timing as more and more reports are coming out about Muslims infiltrating the US from Mexico. We are are own worst enemy and will pay dearly for our farsical HLS.
I was part of the Hunter UAV development effort almost 10 years ago when we were literally testing them to destruction. They have been used extensively in the Balkans and Iraq with great success. I can only wonder what is now being further evaluated.
I'd say the biggest problem with their tests have been poor choices of target areas. I have only seen them twice in close proximity to the border -- one time each for the Hermes and the Hunter. However, I've seen them many times way north.
Thanks for the ping!
I guess now they are going to resort to David Drier's plan?
Read later.
if they get grounded somebody got paid.
bump!
Bump!
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