Posted on 04/26/2005 3:33:46 AM PDT by iso
By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times
Published April 24, 2005
PALOMINAS, Ariz. -- With a 10-foot wingspan, the ability to reach speeds of 65 mph, onboard cameras and heat-seeking devices, the Border Hawk could become the newest weapon in the government's effort to shut down illegal aliens and drug smugglers.
That's what Chuck Floyd, a retired U.S. Army officer who lives in Maryland and visited last week with the Minuteman Project volunteers here, thinks about a drone airplane being tested in a dusty desert field just north of the Mexican border.
"This airplane could be a valuable component in the government's ability to combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling," he told The Washington Times as the plane maneuvered along the border during an early-afternoon test.
"It can spot those who cross the border illegally from an altitude of 400 feet and stay on them until the U.S. Border Patrol can respond. Its potential is limitless," said Mr. Floyd, who also oversaw the construction of U.S. embassies and the implementation of security enhancements at those facilities for the State Department after his retirement from the military.
The Border Hawk was built by the American Border Patrol (ABP), a local private watchdog organization that posts pictures of illegal immigration on the border to draw attention to a rising flood of migration along the Arizona border.
Of the 1.15 million illegal aliens apprehended last year by the Border Patrol, more than 40 percent were caught along a 260-mile area of the U.S.-Mexico border known as the Tucson sector.
ABP member Michael King, who helped design and build the wooden plane "from scratch," said it has the capability of staying airborne for more than two hours and can scan the border with its onboard camera equipment. He refers to the aircraft as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
"With monitors mounted in a van at a central location, you see immediately what the camera sees, day or night," Mr. King said as he tested the craft near the San Pedro River, a favorite corridor for illegal aliens and drug smugglers headed north.
The airplane, painted white with Border Hawk emblazoned on the fuselage, uses low-light cameras, night-vision equipment and an infrared camera. It is manually launched from a short runway and, once at a safe altitude, is switched to autopilot.
Mr. King said the plane's thermal imaging system captures would-be border crossers by detecting body heat.
"There's no hiding from these cameras," he said. "If you're out there, they will find you."
The 20-pound plane, working in tandem with ground sensors, is monitored on numerous video screens located in a command center -- in this case, a van parked in the desert near the river, just a stone's throw from where it enters the United States from Mexico. The video from the aircraft can be downloaded immediately on the Internet and broadcast live.
Mr. King has conducted numerous tests and operational flights along the border of the aircraft over the past year, documenting what he described as "dozens of suspected border intruders" as they crossed undetected into the United States.
The designers and builders of the Border Hawk aircraft have spent about $250,000 in development costs through Border Technologies Inc., a private enterprise that resulted from the ABP effort to build a successful UAV.
The U.S. Army recently sent a team to observe the Border Hawk, but made no commitment to the program.
Mr. Floyd said the aircraft has the ability to tell the federal government -- and the American public -- immediately what is happening on the border, allowing those responsible to respond and apprehend illegal crossers and drug smugglers.
"Securing this border should be a primary concern of every elected official," said Mr. Floyd, a Republican candidate for Congress in Maryland's 8th District. "This plane gives the government a better opportunity to control this border if it really wants to."
Remember all those people who said, "It can't be done"? Mark those days. Remember them. Brand them in your mind. "Can't be done" is not a part of America's lexicon.
It can't be done. :0)
Reality Check!
What does the cost-benefit analysis look like? When does the law of diminishing returns kick in?
The main problem is not detecting the illegals. This little airplane will just give us more of the information we already have. The main problem is the political will to do something about it.
$250,000?! Can civilian border watch groups afford the UAVs at that price?!
$250,000 for a capable tactical UAV isn't out of the ballpark, but I think ABP is way behind the power curve here. Numerous UAVs already exist in the USG arsenal, including tactical ones capable of endurance greater than 2 hours, with EO/IR day/night cameras, laser range finders, laser target designators, satcom links, and high speed data links. Full motion video, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with Ground Moving Target (GMT) recognition is the norm for many of these UAVs.
Methinks the ABP should focus on recruiting the agents necessary to apprehend and deport the illegals once detected.
When I spoke of "political will" I was primarily referring to the need for the political will and courage to confront:
(1)Business interests relying on illegal immigrant labor.
(2)The domestic Latino community. Unfortunately, many people in this community are spring-loaded to take offense and call everyone a bigot who wants to enforce immigration laws.
(3)Corrupt south-of-the border governments. They like using the U.S. as a safety valve for their own discontented populations. No need to reform at home if all their malcontents can be sent north to the U.S. Plus, these governments like all the money that the illegals send home; lots of poor illegals send money home to their families and many blatantly criminal illegals send money home to their cronies.
(4)Our own domestic leftist/Marxists. These vermin infest the Democratic Party, our unions, our college campuses, our media, our judiciary, our State Department, and our Congress. It takes a lot of political courage and savvy to successfully confront this scum and survive politically.
The political will to confront these people is in short supply. They all have their own selfish agendas that benefit from illegal immigration. In the meantime, our terrorist enemies are more than happy to use this situation as a Trojan Horse for their own murderous purposes.
Well, to look at it in cold, logistical terms, prior to the Minutemen, it would have made sense to shut down the border patrol altogether. Does any US citizen want that?
I agree with you. There is no political will by GOP to enforce immigration and naturalization laws, because they think they need the Hispanic vote. We have the technology, and perhaps the resources (manpower), to strictly control the borders; however it is entirely a function of Political will to do so (which neither the left or right has much of here at the moment).
Damn, I hate politics and weasely politicians!
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