DHS shuts down surveillance blimp program at border.

News nation ^ | 8/31/2024 | Ali Bradley

[NonValueAdded]

(NewsNation) — The Department of Homeland Security is shutting down a program that used surveillance blimps at the border amid objections from lawmakers and border agents.

The agency announced it was decreasing the number of blimps from 12 to four last year and promised the program would be a thing of the past by the end of fiscal year 2023. Nearly a year later, the tactical Aerostat surveillance program is finally shutting down as funding has dried up.

More than two dozen people are out of a job thanks to the program’s end, according to DHS sources.

The program used tethered aerial surveillance blimps that fly at an altitude that provides border patrol agents the ability to maintain visual awareness of illegal border activity around the clock.

[NonValueAdded]

• The program provided 24/7 aerial surveillance
• DHS cited a lack of funding for the effort
• Agents say it was critical in catching people trying to evade capture

[packagingguy]

Could we just borrow a surveillance balloon from China?

[HIDEK6]

More than two dozen people are out of a job thanks to the program’s end, according to DHS sources

Best wishes for them to find gainful employment.

[ConservativeMind]

The Biden Administration is trying to smuggle more assassins over the border, to cause chaos for the rest of us, once Trump takes over.

[Sacajaweau]

Please...you can do this with a $99 drone.

[xone]

Not really, the aerostats have other capabilities.

[BitWielder1]

Considering the millions of illegals, the drug and human trafficking flow, and the government turning a blind eye towards it all, it seems that whatever data they collected was ignored anyway.

[blueunicorn6]

Now where will Joy Behar find work?

[usurper]

The program used tethered aerial surveillance blimps that fly at an altitude that provides border patrol agents the ability to maintain visual awareness of illegal border activity around the clock.

They were originally deployed to detect low flying cartel aircraft that existing radars can't see. They were so successful that the cartels quit their areal incursions.

I guess the cartels paid the US government to get their airspace back.

[iontheball]

Invasion - out of sight, out of mind.

[Sacajaweau]

Price....$40,000 and up.....

[Sacajaweau]

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2022-01-18/military-blimps-mexico-border-homeland-security-pentagon-4338532.html#:~:text=The%20Defense%20Department%20has%20agreed,ongoing%20mission%20in%20the%20region.

[hal ogen]

I guess I can understanding their idiotic deranged thinking. The balloons were intruding of the illegal aliens’ privacy. Typical governmental nitwittery. Can I stop paying taxes yet???

[tiki]

I didn’t know that, our county will be losing some very good jobs.

[FrankRizzo890]

They must have been too effective.

[IncPen]

Trump should hammer ComeAllah with this…

[Gaffer]

Tethered blimps with underbelly radars that could detect ground movement a long way away. Started with Ft. Huachuca in the 80s....I worked on testing one of the new radar antennas for it. They worked too well for Biden, Harris and DHS.

[LegendHasIt]

Border Czar Que Mala Harris determined that those blimps hovering over border invasion hotspots were detrimental to the emotional state of her beloved alien invaders.

[jmacusa]

Yup. Establishing a permanent Fifth Column in America.