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DHS Watchdog Says Border Patrol's Drones Are Expensive, Useless.

posted by janrinok on Friday January 09 2015, @07:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the but,-but,-they're-sexy dept.

AnonTechie writes:

The CBP's (Customs and Border Patrol) drone squadron has been a tightly-held secret. Documents have been pried loose by FOIA lawsuits, but it's pretty clear the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the CBP would rather not discuss its flying surveillance technology. Not that the CBP drones are strictly for patrolling our nation's borders. They've been spotted far inland, being used by law enforcement agencies taking advantage of the CBP's drone lending library.

Finally, more details on the CBP's drones have made their way into the public domain, thanks to an Office of the Inspector General report. [https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1391066/oig-15-17-dec14.pdf (pdf link)] The information contained in this document points to two seeming contradictions, albeit the sort of contradictions often found in government agencies that run long on Congressional support but short on effective oversight.

They're expensive: "We estimate that, in fiscal year 2013, it cost at least $62.5 million to operate the program, or about $12,255 per hour."

And they're worthless: Given the cost of the Unmanned Aircraft System program and its unproven effectiveness, CBP should reconsider its plan to expand the program. The $443 million that CBP plans to spend on program expansion could be put to better use by investing in alternatives, such as manned aircraft and ground surveillance assets.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150106/18214929616/dhs-watchdog-says-border-patrols-drones-are-expensive-useless.shtml

 
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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday January 09 2015, @09:38PM

    by frojack (1554) on Friday January 09 2015, @09:38PM (#133301) Journal

    I suspect they aren't using the hard points at all, or maybe for fuel.

    Also is is known that these are really operated by CBP? Early on, these were run out of Creech Airforce base, with a CBP officer there for communications with field officers. I don't know if that changed.

    Because these were essentially un-armed, they served as training flight time for Airforce drone pilots prior to assigning them to Afghanistan based drones.

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  • (Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday January 09 2015, @11:27PM

    by JeanCroix (573) on Friday January 09 2015, @11:27PM (#133324)
    If they were using all those hard points for fuel, they'd have a lot more loiter time than the 20 hours stated. My guess is that the government agency doing the purchasing wanted the "biggest & baddest" at the time, and GA-ASI was only happy to oblige. As far as who was and is operating them, I couldn't guess. (Disclosure - I used to work for GA-ASI, specifically dealing with MQ-9 and the Avenger).