UAVs

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans to resume unmanned air vehicle operations along the border with Mexico next month following delivery of its second General Atomics Predator B. The UAV will replace the vehicle lost in April because of operator error (Flight International, 6-12 June).

Border patrol expects to be operating four Predators by the end of September next year, says Michael Kostelnik, assistant commissioner, CBP Air and Marine. Unlike the first aircraft, which was only fitted with line-of-sight datalinks, the new Predators will have beyond line-of-sight satellite communications enabling all four to be controlled from CBP's air and marine operations centre in Riverside, California, he says.

Initially, the Predators will be flown from Ft Huachuca under the Arizona Border Control Initiative, but the additional aircraft will enable CBP to extend operations along the border with Mexico, says Kostelnik. The initial focus is on detecting illegal immigration and illicit narcotics. Kostelnik expects UAVs to play a key role in the US Secure Border Initiative now getting under way.

Kostelnik says the CBP would like to deploy some of the Predators to the northern border with Canada, where there is little infrastructure in place to monitor the remote and often rugged border areas. US Congress wants to provide CBP with $105 million in fiscal year 2007 for UAV infrastructure, and $10 million a year for unmanned operations, he says.