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NBC: All Border-Wall Prototypes Vulnerable To Penetration — Including Steel Slats
Hotair ^
| 01/10/2019
| Ed Morrissey
Posted on 01/10/2019 9:17:49 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Donald Trump travels to the border today, perhaps to declare a state of emergency but certainly to repeat the call for an impenetrable barrier along the frontier. A previously redacted report from the Department of Homeland Security suggests that they’re not having much success in finding such a model. According to NBC News, the report included photos of all eight prototype breached by Marines with ordinary household tools — including the “steel slats” fence.
This might be news if anyone thought it was possible to build a wall that couldn’t be breached under any circumstances:
President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as “absolutely critical to border security” in his Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday. But Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS.
A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after experts from the Marine Corps were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools.
The Trump administration directed the construction of eight steel and concrete prototype walls that were built in Otay Mesa, California, just across the border from Tijuana, Mexico. Trump inspected the prototypes in March 2018. He has now settled on a steel slat, or steel bollard, design for the proposed border barrier additions. Steel bollard fencing has been used under previous administrations.
However, testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including the steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to an internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report.
Earlier, the White House had bragged about the testing on these prototypes. At the time, the takeaway was that the prototypes were nearly impossible to scale, which is the priority for such barriers. However, it does matter to what extend such barriers can be made “impenetrable,” especially since Trump has made that an explicit promise.
On the other hand, that’s more of a theoretical issue, especially in this case. People crossing the border illegally don’t usually carry tools with them, not even “ordinary” tools. In fact, as ABC’s Matt Gutman reported this morning, they don’t carry anything at all — because the coyotes take it from them:
Gutman also notes that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) wants more of the steel slat fencing erected in the Rio Grande area. Based on this report, it’s not difficult to see why. People are getting dumped along this area because they can cross over easily on foot. Erecting barriers would allow CBP to secure the border more efficiently by narrowing the spaces in which foot traffic can occur, and likely would dry up the efforts to cross far afield of those spaces. The open areas act as a draw for such crossings, and the manpower needed to interdict that traffic is far higher without it — even if technology existed to detect every such intrusion over hundreds of miles.
Frankly, this clip makes the case for more barriers, as Trump is demanding, and rebuts the case that the traffic over the southern border is in any way manageable without them. They aren’t the entire answer, but it at least would make border patrol and humanitarian efforts a lot more efficient. (Front-page photo from DHS report via NBC News at the links above.)
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: borderwall; chamberofcommerce; gettrump; globalists; nbc; smearcampaign
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To: SeekAndFind
Seems like reactive armor would slow any attempts
to cut or breach it...not to mention a sloped berm
and well defined cross fires.
Oh yeah, one way exits, cause you can leave any time
you want.
61
posted on
01/10/2019 9:47:09 AM PST
by
tet68
( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
To: SeekAndFind
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
General George S. Patton, Jr.
Israel has a fence to keep out terrorists trained and financed by some of the best intelligence agencies on the planet. It isn’t perfect, either, but it has reduced terrorism in Israel that originates from outside of the fence by about 99%. Literally thousands of lives and at least hundreds of millions of dollars of property damage (if not billions) have been saved.
So tell me again why we shouldn’t put up a wall?
Besides, since when is perfection the standard for any government program? If that’s the new standard for the Dems, then we’ll FINALLY have a government as big as the Founders had imagined.
62
posted on
01/10/2019 9:47:11 AM PST
by
Ancesthntr
("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)
To: SeekAndFind
A wall may not stop ALL illegal infiltration, but it will certainly stop SOME.
I was always taught not to let perfection be the enemy of action.
63
posted on
01/10/2019 9:47:23 AM PST
by
IronJack
To: READINABLUESTATE
Fill it with napalm. Then go ahead, a saw will take too long, use a torch or cutting wheel on it.
64
posted on
01/10/2019 9:47:34 AM PST
by
Ikeon
(i may be wrong but I'm not lying. .....really....)
To: ebshumidors
Perfect! A source of income as well as a deterent.
65
posted on
01/10/2019 9:49:16 AM PST
by
econjack
To: bkopto
“Make the slats out of titanium.”
No, too expensive. Just coat them in Tungsten (melting point 6,192 degrees F.). Let’s see them torch THAT!
66
posted on
01/10/2019 9:49:42 AM PST
by
Ancesthntr
("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)
To: SeekAndFind
I bet all the doors, walls and locks that protect NBC executives can also be defeated.
67
posted on
01/10/2019 9:50:19 AM PST
by
Moonman62
(Give a man a fish and he'll be a Democrat. Teach a man to fish and he'll be a responsible citizen.)
To: SeekAndFind
NBC forgot about the surveillance video cameras that will be set up to detect anyone trying to saw through.
68
posted on
01/10/2019 9:52:01 AM PST
by
I want the USA back
(Lying Media: willing and eager allies of the hate-America left.)
To: rktman
69
posted on
01/10/2019 9:53:28 AM PST
by
FrankR
(Make America Great Again, and Keep It That Way.)
To: SeekAndFind
No one claims that a barrier cannot be breached. What a legitimate barrier does is reduce, contain, and control attempts to breach the border. It allows the CBP agents to better manage the assault. In addition, if the barrier prevents most of the invaders from gaining a foothold on U.S. soil, it avoids the cost of caring for and processing out the invaders.
To: SeekAndFind
"...the wall wont work..."
Democrats and the media like to insist that illegal immigrants will just tunnel beneath the wall.
Good. Then fill those new tunnels with steel rebar and concrete. Theyre just providing the labor.
We can fill tunnels with concrete faster than they can build them.
71
posted on
01/10/2019 9:54:22 AM PST
by
Blue Jays
( Rock hard ~ Ride free)
To: SeekAndFind
How vulnerable is no wall at all?
72
posted on
01/10/2019 9:54:26 AM PST
by
ArcadeQuarters
("Immigration Reform" is ballot stuffing)
To: SeekAndFind
73
posted on
01/10/2019 9:54:39 AM PST
by
mrmeyer
(You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. Robert Heinlein)
To: glorgau
thank you for perspective! ;)
To: SeekAndFind
I was a telephone repairman for 30 years and I can tell you 90% of people, even manly men, would have maximum pucker factor trying to scale a 30 ft wall. Ladders, ropes, even a bucket truck at 35 ft with nothing on the other side would make many men throw up. It would definitely rule out women and children with a 300lb butt. A 30 ft wall like the ones used as samples, would stop 99.8% of the illegals crossing the border.
We had a 35ft ladder at work to climb walls and such, but it took two men to carry it and if it caught the wind while you were raising it, fingers and arms were in jeopardy as it slid down out of control. I doubt many Navy Seals could scale a slick 30ft wall in any reasonable amount of time, let alone a woman with 3 kids.
The only options that will be left soon is deadly force by drones firing Hellfire missiles or electrifying a metal fence. I figured by now the militia's would be placing snipers with .50 cals on a mountain by now. Militia's have been down there before.
75
posted on
01/10/2019 9:55:30 AM PST
by
chuckles
To: Balding_Eagle
This is why Ive complainedMy eyes cannot roll far enough out of my head at all the FR spitballers from the sidelines.
To: shelterguy
“Thats where human eyes, sensors and electronic surveillance comes into play.”
Yep, and Israel seems to be doing pretty well with a properly maintained border wall, a fact that seems to have escaped NBC’s attention.
To: SeekAndFind
Which results in less illegal entry, This:
Or this:
Or this:
To: Moonman62
I want to market a wall scaling equipment kit written in Spanish with a tracking device hidden in each one available in most Mexican towns. And then supply the info to Border Patrol so they can meet them at the wall. Of course Im sure there are opportunities for portable hot air balloons and helicopters too.
79
posted on
01/10/2019 10:05:23 AM PST
by
KierkegaardMAN
(This is the sort of stuff up with which I shall not put!)
To: SeekAndFind
As “Marshall Dillon (Gunsmoke)” once said, “There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode, and never was a man that couldn’t be throw’d”...and while there is some questionable grammar in that quote, the truth remains.
The libs are suggesting that we are “going to fail”, so, why bother doing it?
I don’t think that the fence section shown was cut with a $1.98 hacksaw from Home Depot...it was a power saw, and it took a little time.
Of course any fence can be breached, climbed over, dug under, or even flown over in a homemade glider. But, I didn’t see any of the “caravan” invaders carrying power hacksaws, or hand gliders with them on the trail.
The libs, as usual, miss the point entirely; their efforts of dissuasion fall on deaf ears, because...because, they’re stupid.
Even if armed guardposts were every 500 yards, people would still find their way up, over,under,or around the wall. Nothing short of shooting them would be permanent, and that would be short-lived as well.
Build the wall...at least those who are entrepreneurial enough to find a way through will be in a smaller, more manageable number.
80
posted on
01/10/2019 10:06:09 AM PST
by
FrankR
(Make America Great Again, and Keep It That Way.)
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