Unmanned drone to patrol Ontario-U.S. border
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The objective? To see whether the Predator's performance and surveillance technology, including advanced optical equipment and infrared sensors, is suited to detecting terrorists, drug runners and other criminal elements on the waterways and shorelines that separate New York state and Canada between Buffalo and Cornwall.
Early indications are the $12-million eye-in-the-sky was a hit and could become a permanent security fixture over upper New York.
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The June test flights follow new U.S. border security measures unveiled last month, including passport requirements at land border crossings and a planned 45-per-cent increase in U.S. border guards along the northern frontier by fall 2010.
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A civilian version of the armed drones used by the military, the Predator typically flies at up to 250 knots at an altitude of 19,000 feet while carrying up to 1,360 kilograms of sensors for land and maritime surveillance, day or night. It can operate at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet.
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On June 20, the craft, plus two CBP unmanned aircraft over North Dakota and Arizona, were all remotely piloted by a CBP crew at the agency's air and marine operations center in Riverside, California. CBP says all performed "law enforcement missions" and streamed video of the events to the congressmen, government officials and police.
The New York aircraft, on loan from CBP's North Dakota air branch, also set an endurance record, flying for more than 20 hours, about twice the endurance of most manned aircraft, "offering a unique and persistent surveillance capability to secure the homeland," says CBP.
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http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/joins+beefed+border/1772955/story.html Color me speechless.
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