Homeland Security Corporation (HSCC)

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Drone flights begin over U.S.-Mexico border
Posted 06/05/2010

Customs plane is piloted from Arizona location
By GARY MARTIN
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
June 5, 2010, 7:44AM

WASHINGTON — An unmanned aerial vehicle made its first surveillance flight this week along the U.S.-Mexico border in West Texas and began gathering intelligence for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, officials said Friday.

Texas lawmakers said the beginning of UVA, or “drone,” flights over the border region advances state security as violence continues in Mexico due to warring drug cartels.
Second drone sought

“By putting eyes in the sky along the Rio Grande, we will gather real-time intelligence,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

The Department of Homeland Security told lawmakers about the flight.

Cuellar, chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on border affairs, said a U.S. Customs and Border Protection application is before the Federal Aviation Administration for another drone to fly over the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has urged FAA Administrator Randolph Babbitt to quickly approve the application for drone surveillance flights in the southern reaches of the state.

“We are working hard to make round-the-clock surveillance the standard for all 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border,” Hutchison said.

FAA officials approved Customs to begin drone flights over West Texas onTuesday, and the first flight was launched that day in Arizona on a course over El Paso and the Big Bend region.

Customs has three drones at its operations center in Sierra Vista, Ariz. Two other Predator B UVAs are stationed in Grand Forks, N.D., for surveillance flights along the northern U.S. border.
Extensive range

If the application receives FAA approval, the craft would be located in Corpus Christi, where it also could fly surveillance missions over the Gulf of Mexico as far east as Louisiana.

The remotely piloted Predator B drones cost about $4.5 million each, are the size of small aircraft and can fly at altitudes used by commercial passenger jets. The drones are made by General Atomics Aeronautical.

Military versions of the aircraft are able to carry up to six warheads.

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