Tucson Region

New high-tech drone on border

SIERRA VISTA - U.S. border officials unveiled their new $14 million unmanned aerial surveillance system at Fort Huachuca Thursday, marking the agency's most technologically advanced attempt to gain control of Arizona's border with Mexico. The Predator-B spy drone, which is controlled through satellite communication and is able to see through clouds from 50,000 feet, has been used by the military in Europe and the Middle East. Its new assignment will have it working with U.S. Border Patrol agents on the ground to counter drug- and people-smuggling in Southern Arizona, said acting Tucson Sector Chief Ronald Colburn. The Predator is the latest addition to what Colburn called the "largest civilian air force in the world," the air operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol. Beginning Monday, U.S. Air and Marine Operations, the air wing that previously operated under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tucson, will be merged into Customs and Border Protection, said Martin Vaughan, director of the agency's air operations in Tucson. The Border Patrol's Predator-B first-year price tag includes the services of a remote pilot and maintenance crew provided by its developer, General Atomics Aeronautics Systems of San Diego. The pilotless plane will be based in Arizona for the first fiscal year. Drones have a higher crash rate than other aircraft, acknowledged Tom Cassidy, president of General Atomics Aeronautics Systems. He declined to say how many of the 130 Predators have crashed, but acknowledged it has a crash rate comparable to the F-16. The U.S. Air Force Safety Center says the F-16 crashed twice in 343,198 hours of flight time in 2004. Border officials stressed the plane's capabilities. "It is laden with technology that will provide us with a tool to better control the border and better accomplish our primary mission of anti-terrorism and all of our traditional border-security missions," Colburn said.