It never did work right, never held up to the climate. Vast temperature changes with so often extreme heat, with high winds blowing dust and even small gravel into the parts took its toll, many were not operational when installed. The parts of it that were in remote locations it was a nightmare in logistics to get them serviced. Techs driving so far to diagnose problems and then often not having parts so needing to come back. Long stretches where each trip was overtime because 4-5 hours of drive time one way. They had the same issues with the blimps along the border, they were down more than operational mostly due to wind.
There has been a sensor system in place for many years that is pretty effective- the downside to it is critter movements can trigger a false alarm. The other down side is even if a sensor is tripped by humans there is not always personnel close enough to respond and people get away. That is really not part of the virtual fence people talk about though- those sensors have been in place forever it seems at least 35 years that I know of.
Silly as it sounds the most effective thing in rugged parts of the border is the Border Patrol Horse Patrol. If they can get reliable intel and support they can go places vehicles cannot, they are quiet enough to surprise most smugglers which makes them far better than ATVs. They can do joint operations with helicopters and other BP and are pretty effective in our area. There is just not enough of them and politicians keep them off the actual border in most cases so bad guys nearly always have an advantage of being able to travel far into the U.S. before being in an area to be detained.
Pretty accurate but see Post 48.
And the Horse Patrol Units are really good but there are few of them. My son was part of a HPU and even shot a drug smuggler that tried to kill him. The smugglers tried to run over him and his horse and my son shot the driver while my son was on horseback, at night, at a gallop against a moving target, using his side-arm. John Wayne shooting for sure.
Interesting. Thanks for your input.
I still think instead of abandoning it, they should have improved it. There are both wartime and border applications of such technology if you can get it to work.
If homeland security said it was needed to keep Bible thumping, gun toting Texan veternas in Texas, Obama would have it working tomorrow.