UAVs help CBP agents keep an eye on the border (when there are no clouds)

Here is a scene which repeats itself daily along the U.S.-Mexico border: It is a dark night in the mountainous border region of southeast Arizona. A group of thirty-one suspected illegal immigrants are walking up and down rocky ridges toward Tucson, Arizona. They are wearing small backpacks and stop to rest every few minutes.

CNN’s Ed Lavandera reports that this scene is not being observed by Border Patrol agents on the ground. Rather, it comes from a video image provided by a Predator B UAV 19,000 feet overhead. There are no Border Patrol agents anywhere near.

Jerry Kersey is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent in charge of this night’s Predator mission. He and his two-man crew relay the information to Border Patrol agents from a small trailer forty miles from the scene.

Lavandera writes that Kersey directs the agents on the ground, who are wearing night-vision goggles. “Stop! Stop! They’re to your right,” Kersey firmly dictates over a radio transmission. “They must see you. The group is running.”

“It makes them much more effective when we’re able to say, ‘Hey, this is a group. You need to come get these guys,’ ” Kersey told Lavandera during a recent night mission.

This is why more and more lawmakers in Washington and in border states — and UAV manufacturers —call for deploying more UAV to patrol the U.S. border regions.

The price tag is high — the Predator’s camera alone can cost more than $2 million — but proponents of the idea say it is worth it. “They can be very useful in providing eyes in the sky to make sure that we keep America safe,” said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat representing the Texas border town of Laredo. “This will be something that provides law enforcement extra support.” Cuellar says he wants to see Predator aircraft help track down illegal immigrants and drug smugglers and provide intelligence on Mexican drug cartels operating along the border.

CBP currently operates six UAVs. There are three Predators in Arizona, two in North Dakota, and one is being tested for maritime anti-narcotics duty in Cape Canaveral, Florida (see “CBP Readies Maritime UAV,” 9 December 2009 HSNW).

The agency will get its seventh drone this spring. That one is expected to go to Corpus Christi, Texas. Right now, none of its drones fly over Texas, the agency said.

CBP Web sites notes that the Predator B can fly up to 240 knots (276 mph) at altitudes up to 50,000 feet. There are questions about safety. Lavandera quotes a federal government study to say that the Predator is prone to crashing. “Serious safety and technical issues need to be addressed if the program is to be expanded domestically,” a May 2008 congressional report said. “… It is noted that UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] suffer accident rates up to hundreds of times higher than manned aircraft.”

In Arizona, since the drones started flying there in 2006, one Predator has crashed because of pilot error and another had a hard landing that caused damage. David Gasho, the director of aviation operations at Fort Huachuca, says those problems have been worked out and the program is much safer now. “When people’s lives and property are at risk, we don’t push the envelope,” Gasho told CNN. “We’ve actually started accumulating a pretty good safety record compared to a wartime picture.”

There are also logistical concerns in flying the aircraft all along the border regions. DHSS would have to coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to make sure the drones do not interfere with private and commercial aircraft.

Lavandera notes that despite their high cost, the Predators do have limitations. Just as Border Patrol agents moved in to capture the group of thirty-one suspected illegal immigrants, thick clouds moved over the mountains at the worst possible moment. The Predator’s camera view of the scene was lost. As ground agents asked for more directions to reach the running suspects, the agents controlling the Predator could no longer tell them where to go. The Border Patrol did manage to capture 18 of the suspects, but 13 others got away.