iraq, afghanistan, somolia to canada now ...

Unmanned drones to patrol border
Brian Liu
globalnational.com
Monday, January 08, 2007

VANCOUVER -- The U.S. Deptartment of Homeland Security will patrol the Canada-U.S. border using unmanned aerial drones by the end of 2007, Global National has learned. The drones are a variation of the MQ-1 Predator used by the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other regions where the U.S. military is deployed.

The pilot program to patrol the Canada-U.S., spearheaded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will be based in Grand Forks, North Dakota -- just south of Manitoba.

Unmanned drones to patrol border
Brian Liu
globalnational.com
Monday, January 08, 2007

VANCOUVER -- The U.S. Deptartment of Homeland Security will patrol the Canada-U.S. border using unmanned aerial drones by the end of 2007, Global National has learned. The drones are a variation of the MQ-1 Predator used by the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other regions where the U.S. military is deployed.

The pilot program to patrol the Canada-U.S., spearheaded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will be based in Grand Forks, North Dakota -- just south of Manitoba.

The CBP version of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), known as the MQ-9 Predator "B" or the "Reaper," is even larger, faster, and more capable than its original military predecessor.

CBP originally deployed a single Reaper in Oct. 2005, where it participated in over 2,000 arrests before crashing into the Arizona desert in April 2006. Since then, the U.S. government has invested nearly $100 million USD to supply additional drones to monitor the northern and southern borders.

"As unmanned aircraft have proven to be effective on our southernborder, this first step in North Dakota will lay the foundation to expand UAS operations along the nation's northern border," said Michael Kostelnik, assistant commissioner, CBP Air and Marine. "As Customs and Border Protection expands air operations along the northern tier, the presence ofthe UAS will further enhance our situational awareness."

The U.S. CBP press release also indicates the addition of satellite infrastructure at for the U.S. CBP's Air and Marine Operations Center in Riverside, Calif., which is intended to provide CBP the capability to access national airspace, expanding the UAS's reach across the northern and southern borders.

The armed military version of the Predator drone is known best for its role on the February 7, 2002, attack on a convoy of sport utility vehicles in Afghanistan, killing a suspected al-Qaeda leader thought to be Osama bin Laden or one of his top lieutenants.