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AUSTIN Texas (Texas Insider Report) Its almost like implementing Dept. of Defense tactics and whats been proven in the field and in theater and Border Security is adopting a very similar scope said Nelson Balido chairman of the Border Commerce & Security Council.
What a ground-based radar does is allow the agent to look backward or forward up to 12 kilometers and identify Items of Interest. Telephonics grew that idea into an entire sensor suite that we call the Raven Mobile Bobby Brown Telephonics vice president tells Insiders Jim Cardle.
The system is built into and mounted on the bed of a large truck and there are currently 44 of them deployed with Border Patrol throughout the country including in El Paso and Del Rio.
This allows them to manage these groups and watch them in off of the border so there can be a safe resolution to the problem and that actually saves lives Brown said.
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The Raven System is constructed of a night camera a day camera the radar and then inside the cab is their own Command & Control Station that allows a single agent to track multiple items of interest. This allows Border Patrol to interdict at THEIR timeline not the other way around. This allows Border Patrol to interdict at a time and in an area or place that is powerful to them as opposed to just bumping into them in the night Brown said.We work with both State & Federal Agencies and in essence become the eyes and the ears. An agent in the middle of the night ... imagine thats actually very terrifying. You cannot see your hand in front of you face.Now we are able to acquire a target of interest the agent is able to slew a camera onto them and determine the seriousness of the threat ... determine whether theyre wearing body armor whether they have a long rifle whether they have a pack on their back. We can determine if there are children so that when they are interdicted we can bring the appropriate items for a safe closure to that event Brown said. And said Balido Something that cant be under-emphasized is that with this new technology we can now be mobile and move with the threat or seasonal immigrant flows. No longer are Border Security agents held captive to fixed towers or unable to move
their assets.
To be able to have the opportunity of moving that asset at both the state & federal levels to where the threat is that helps ensure that Border Security is as nimble as the cartels are. And we certainly know how nimble they can be Balido said.
This helps our Border Security men & women that are risking their lives come home safe at night.
The Joint Task Force-West actually out of San Antonio is going to be headed by a 3-Star Commander and anything from San Diego to Brownsville will be reporting there. Well have a 3-Star Admiral out of Norfolk Virginia handling all the Coast Guard maritime and Gulf of Mexico interdictions.
And then lastly will be the Joint Task Force Intelligence Branch headed up by the National Security Intelligence Agency otherwise known as ICE out of Washington D.C. said the Border Commerce & Security Councils chairman.
At the end of the day if the local control is left to someone in some office in Washington D.C. thats where things can possibly go wrong. What were seeing now is giving those folks in the field more control to support that guy thats out there 10 hours a day in a truck and in the middle of Val Verde County close to Del Rio Texas Balido said.
