Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. A second Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) will soon be based in Texas in an effort to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border. The Predator UAV is equipped with an electro-optical/infrared sensor system that vastly improves the operational effectiveness in CBP missions and is drone with synthetic aperture radar suitable for flights in darkness and inclement weather.
By the end of 2011 the next UAV will be stationed at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station alongside the Guardian UAV which began service including maritime missions earlier this year.
That will give us six aircraft on the Southwest border and because of the ops concept and the way we fly them on any given day there could be three or more aircraft in Texas. And theyre routinely now flying nightly not only in the Rio Grande Valley but up through Laredo and up to El Paso" testified Maj. Gen. Michael Kostelnik who oversees U.S. Customers and Border Protections UAV program responding to Congressmen Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) and Michael McCaul (R-Austin) during Tuesdays Homeland Security subcommittee hearing.
Congressmen Cuellar and McCaul have lead bipartisan efforts to increase the use of technology to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in April they requested that DHS increase UAV coverage in Texas.
The addition will further allow CBP to receive precise real time surveillance allowing the deployment of fewer agents in a specific area while intercepting drugs human smuggling and acts of terrorism" Congressman Cuellar said. Our vigilant efforts to secure the border through the work of Maj. Gen. Kostelnik the Department of Homeland Security and Congressman McCauls bipartisan efforts will be ongoing."
Presently of the four UAVs located on the southern border three are stationed in Arizona while one which is classified as a maritime unit is based in Texas. The Texas UAV the Guardian is assigned to the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station to uniquely perform surveillance of both the border region and Gulf of Mexico. Texas however shares 1254 miles of border with Mexico compared with Arizonas 370-mile boundary.
