Customs and Border Protection (CBP) aircraft operating along the southwest and northern borders of the United States too often are not equipped with the necessary sensors to aid in carrying out border security missions, according to the chairman of a Senate panel that oversees homeland security issues.
“One specific thing I have seen first-hand is that an aircraft without an advanced sensor onboard to help detect illegal activity on the ground is of very little value,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the House Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated yesterday in his prepared remarks at a hearing to examine a comprehensive immigration reform bill. “Far too many of the aircraft we deploy in support of the Border Patrol aren’t fitted with cameras or sensors that have been proven effective.
Carper has made several visits in the past few months to international border areas of Arizona, Texas and Canada. Last week in McAllen, Texas, Carper said he noted that of three CBP helicopters flying there, only one has the proper sensors for border patrol missions.
“The other two are ineffective,” Carper said. “We’ve got to be smarter than this.”
Carper also pointed to the Cessna C-206 aircraft that CBP flies in support of the Border Patrol. Carper reiterated remarks that he made last month that the inexpensive aircraft, when fitted with an advanced sensor, is effective.
However, Carper said that 16 of the C-206 aircraft don’t have sensors and are “barely used. We need to fix that.”
Also at yesterday’s hearing, Anne Richards, assistant Inspector General at DHS, testified that CBP still hasn’t adequately planned for the resources it needs to operate its fleet of 10 Predator unmanned aircraft systems. An IG report a year ago on CBP’s UAS noted that the agency had not adequately planned to have ground control stations and support equipment at the aircraft launch and recovery sites and did not have a process for stakeholders to submit mission requests and to how to prioritize those requests, she said.