Posted on 03/02/2013 6:09:55 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
Much of the language that causes concern is written by people trying to inflate their own importance. The CBP Predator program in reality is a failure. It sucks funds away from things that work into a capability that is seldom used and is locked on limited tracks allowed by the FAA. The contract with General Atomics is practically criminal in its lack of accountability. Several years ago a Predator being flown by General Atomics contract pilots was crashed due to gross incompetence and negligence. Because of the way the contract is written, CBP still pays an outrageous amount of money every year, to General Atomics, for Ku band time on that aircraft that is now in the trash heap.
CBP Air would be a lot better off with a mid size turbine airplane capable of carrying the same sensors for a lot less money. You could buy several of these for the cost of the Predator and use the same crews to fly those aircraft. The advantage would be cost, a lower mishap rate, and CBP could operate it anywhere in the U.S. without a permission slip from the FAA.
The only capability the Predator has brought to its limited operating area has been VADER, an MTI radar capable of detecting and tracking groups on foot. Then again that could have been bought for a manned aircraft.
It also tells you that the Sec of DHS has a limp dick.
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
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Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
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It's not the country we loved ...
Soon we won't have to worry about people coming here to be free. We won't be free.
Our biggest concern will be can we leave... and will Canada take us in...
Regulations don’t mean anything if the people who are supposed to enforce the regulations are lawless thugs just like the foreign enemy combatant who appointed them to that position.
Right now “the enemy is in the building”. Laws/regulations/Constitution no longer matter, because the only ones allowed to guard the henhouse are all foxes.
I want my country back. Spineless GOP, sycophantic dimorats, and a dictator in chief........the insanity continues
“In the border area of California and Arizona, it may be actively dangerous for the law-abiding to not carry firearms precisely due to the illegal flow of drugs and immigrants across the border in those areas,...”
How about on the streets of any big US city?
That was my question, too. What about tracking just the SIM card? Can they do that wo/ the battery activated?
Somehow I am not comforted. If anyone thinks the only danger is from Obama, or the left, they are mistaken.
and you would be correct on that...all the way back to when someone has the asshat idea of a Patriot Act which came under the GOP. Some like Rush have it right, it is the ruling political class, not party, that is at odds with us the serfs. Soon they will be in complete control with no ability to get them out, at least that is what they think.
Someone here pointed out weeks ago, during its high point, the provos in the IRA had no more than 100 members yet managed to keep an entire nation at bay for over 50 years. It is just a matter of commitment to a cause, hopefully the flame of freedom stays kindled in the USA.
So, when do we start blackmarketing for obamaphones? The jackboots wouldn’t track their own free phones, right?
Latest technology probably puts self-contained trackers in all cell phone batteries.....Wouldn't put it past them - might explain why the batteries cost so damn much.
“...the agency notes on its Web site that its Predator B series is capable of ‘targeting and weapons delivery’”
All it takes is a secret or “emergency” presidential directive to arm the “capable” drones, such as allowing the Secret Service to use armed drones to protect POTUS or deal with an emergent domestic terror situation like the DC sniper.
I have seen nothing to preclude that from having happened already and drones have already been spotted near POTUS appearances.
Your argument is from the perspective and standpoint of a civilized government. In those cases, the pen is mightier than the sword. However those who now occupy positions of power are anything but civilized. Who ever said the pen was mightier than the sword, obviously never met the sword, or if they did it was too late to warn everyone of their egregious mistake.
:O)
One problem with your line of thinking, James: these are not autonomous flight platforms. They require a joystick jockey to keep them going. All it takes is some good intel on where in the wilderness the flight radio shack is located, some ingenuity, a pack of pissed off patriots, and you can take over those drones for your own purposes or at least make the control of those devices quite perilous for those who wish to do the job.
The problem with the IRA is that it was supported via indirect routes by the Soviet Union and other means. They did not live in a vacuum nor do most guerrilla type movements.
Don’t forget the radar units, else the launch platform pictured will do nothing.
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