The Border Report
April 26, 2006

Judging from photos taken of the drone crash yesterday, it was a hard landing for the multi-million Predator-B. But thanks to a Senate vote today, we may be getting more unmanned aerial vehicles.

A screen grab of a KVOA-tv video shows the drone’s rear smashed into the ground. Sources say the engine failed before it crashed; I don’t know enough about planes to discern if that would make the Predator crash ass-end first.

The $14 million system uses satellite feed to upload what it records over to an operator. The idea is it can hover for miles, downloading illegal entries to operators who can dispatch agents on the ground quickly.

But is it worth it?

The drone plane is the golden-haired child of the U.S. Border Patrol. In a March speech, patrol Chief David Aguilar said a second UAV would be introduced in June of this year.

According to an Arizona Daily Star article today, before it crashed, the Predator-B was responsbile for about 1,790 illegal immigrant apprehensions since October.

To place that in its proper context, the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector has made more than 205,000 arrests in the same time period.

The Office of Inspector General has been gently critical of the system, saying that the Predator-B is expensive to maintain.

One UAV requires up to 20 personnel and the maintenance cost is double that of manned aircraft, said Inspector Richard Skinner in a December report. But because it can stay aloft longer, presumably the cost will go down over time, he said.

Except for this first one. I’m no expert but if I had a car that looked like that, I’d be dragging it to the junkyard.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate just passed an amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for $1.9 billion in extra border security.

The amendment makes funding available for more lighting, replacing old Customs and Border Protection vehicles, and UAVs. The money would also be used to bring in replacement P-3s and Black Hawk helicopters.

The amendment was introduced by Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson in early April to the Senate’s guestworker plan and was promptly tossed out.

It was offered up by Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) after key Republicans, including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, blamed the Democrats for voting the amendment down three weeks ago.

It gets more interesting because the additional money for border security was clipped out of President Bush’s Iraq War request.

This could be a move by Republican Senators to back gracefully away from both the president and the Iraq War, neither of which are very popular with voters.

According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, the president’s approval rating is at an all-time low of 38 percent.

Border security though, is increasingly winning the favor of voters. Every piece of legislation in the House and Senate addresses an increase in border security.

I have to correct an earlier posting: the Predator B alone is worth $6.5 million. I said it was worth $10 million.