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The last two of eight prototypes for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall took shape Thursday at a construction site in San Diego.
The prototypes, including one built by Israeli defense firm Elta, form a tightly packed row of imposing concrete and metal panels, including one with sharp metal edges on top.
[...] The models, which cost the government up to $500,000 each, were spaced 30 feet (9.1 meters) apart. Slopes, thickness and curves vary. One has two shades of blue with white trim. The others are gray, tan or brown — in sync with the desert.
Bidding guidelines call for the prototypes to stand between 18 and 30 feet (5.5 and 9.1 meters) high and be able to withstand at least an hour of punishment from a sledgehammer, pickaxe, torch, chisel or battery-operated tools.
Features also should prevent the use of climbing aids such as grappling hooks, and the segments must be "aesthetically pleasing" when viewed from the US side.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday October 21 2017, @10:44AM (12 children)
I think we can fairly safely assume that it's just not going to be the physical wall. While they didn't go the full moat full of crocodiles (I think they would have been turned into croc-tacos anyway) and/or sentry guns route I think we can assume there is going to be a whole battery of sensors near, on and around the walls and there will still be patrols on the right side of the border. So hopefully they'll know if someone runs up to the wall and plants a shaped charge, if nothing else they'll hear it soon afterwards, and one would hope they know how to spot a catapult or other hurler of flying objects. Tunnel-digging is also a sensory job.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:07AM (3 children)
Your usage of the word "right" concerns me...
(Score: 4, Funny) by looorg on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:12AM (1 child)
It could be the left side of the border to depending on where you look at it from.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @03:15PM
I'll give you a point for pedantry but you still sound like a sleazebag to me...
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:27AM
Of course Trump will weigh in. He'll choose the winner, the winner, the winningest wall of winners, it'll be winning, winning, winning all the way.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 21 2017, @01:21PM (6 children)
A bazooka rocket is also a shaped charge [wikipedia.org]
Just for the fun of it: damage a half a million wall segment with a $500 round [military-today.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday October 21 2017, @01:35PM (3 children)
The model or prototype might be $500k each, that doesn't mean that the finished or fabricated segments will be $500k each. There is clearly not enough materials or labor cost in there for that price, so this will just be the prototype and R&D costs.
I don't recall now what has been said but the wall is probably not going to be put EXACTLY on the spot of the actual border, I assume it will be a little inside the US-side so there is a bit of US on both sides of the wall. Enough room for a mine field perhaps or the option to shoot to kill anything that gets close to the wall. So if they start shooting RPG:s at the wall from the Mexican side I think this will quite quickly escalate and you'll start to see more armed patrols that will shoot to kill anything that even gets close to the wall, there will be actual working mine fields etc.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @03:21PM (1 child)
I see you support extra-judicial killings as well as judge-jury-and-executioner powers for those you whom you, mistakenly, think would welcome you in their 'in-group'.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:29AM
See, I wonder if Trump even knows about the wall that came down in 1989? That one started construction in 1961 and had a pretty successful run reducing border crossings for 28 years. A lot to learn from that experience: frontier zones, shoot to kill towers, etc. Also: what people on both sides thought of it, and what that ultimately did to the empire which tried to maintain it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:06PM
As you say, those are the costs for the models or prototypes. As for the wall itself, the article tells us:
That comes to, in round numbers, $13,500 per meter or $12,350 per yard ($135 per cm or $343 per inch).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:36PM (1 child)
Your link says the price can be as little as $100 per round.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday October 22 2017, @12:13AM
To be pedantic, the second link says
Worst case scenario, $500.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:11AM
I'm surprised they haven't contracted in any companies from the former East Germany. They have a lot of experience in building this sort of wall.