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| Home Front: Politix |
| US border patrol to deploy 98' networked radar towers |
| 2007-04-13 |
| Nasty, condescending article in The Register (UK), but some interesting information within. American border guards will soon deploy 98-foot-tall radar surveillance masts with built-in wireless networking in a bid to prevent those attempting to enter the US illegally. Boeing, prime contractor for the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), recently announced a successful test of the first "integrated mobile sensor tower". According to SBI Monthly, the towers will provide information to the Common Operating Picture, or COP, a networked computer map showing where the intruders are. SBI Monthly lays out a typical scenario showing how COP works: A group of individuals has just entered the US illegally and is on foot. As they make their way across the desert, they are picked up on radar...A Sector Enforcement Specialist identifies the location...[and] zooms in to get a visual on what triggered the radar. The Specialist then notifies Border Patrol Agents in the vicinity through voice communications. The responding Agent is then relayed the coordinates of the illegal aliens to their Mobile COP, displayed on their laptop computer mounted in their vehicle...the Agent goes to intercept...Moments later, the Agent locates the illegal aliens and makes the apprehensions. Assuming flat desert terrain, a 98-foot mast will have line of sight range out to approximately 12 miles, so each tower could sweep a circle of territory 24 miles across. The US' southern border is a smidgeon under 2,000 miles long. Govexec.com reports that the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general estimates the final cost of SBI at $8bn to $30bn, though Boeing has no contracts of that magnitude just yet. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #11 Figure this: some terrain is simply too rough and has too many dead zones. Other is urban. You need patrolled fences in those areas. I spent enough time setting up and then evading GSR's to know that they are not a perfect solution, but properly used, along with fences, LP/OP's, observers, patrols and overhead observation, they can be effective. Main thing is to get the other routes covered with barriers. In the military we'd simply use a minefield. How bout this: minefield full of "bouncing bettys" loaded with infrared flourescing dye that stains the skin, and fires a trip flare, as well as radioing in the detonation. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2007-04-13 21:29 |
| #10 But mojo, the US-Mexico border is on dry land. So the answer must be zero nautical miles, right? ;-) /end anti-Barbie says, "Arithmetic's easy when you think mathematically!" |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-04-13 15:35 |
| #9 Math, anyone? The rule: 1.17 times the square root of your height of eye = Distance to the horizon in nautical miles Sq. Rt. of 98 = 9.9 1.17 * 9.9 = 11.58 Nautical miles It can see both ways along the border, so each 98' tower can cover about 23 naut. mi. of border. How long is that border, again? |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-04-13 14:16 |
| #8 Brer Rabbit - It's actually quite simple. We can afford this and not a fence, because Boeing doesn't make fences. Since Lockheed Martin won both the F-22 and F-35 contracts (and therefore has guaranted work for roughly the next two decades), and since the next big aircraft contract will be the B-52/B-1 replacement that will start preliminary work around 2015 (and only Boeing really has a chance at that one), the major aerospace companies have basically become technology providers in search of missions. Pork and the need to keep the manufacturing base open and running will do the rest. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-04-13 14:14 |
| #7 8 to 30 billion dollars, that's some spread. I guess that means it would really cost 100 billion when it's all said and done. Do these people that estimate these costs drag the number out of their ass? Oh! Wait. Never mind... |
| Posted by: Natural Law 2007-04-13 14:13 |
| #6 As long as the data is fed to the automated guns, I don't care how the towers work, etc. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2007-04-13 11:46 |
| #5 Maybe they can put that new 'heat ray' on the towers - detect with radar, aim & confirm with camera, then 'broil'. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-04-13 11:37 |
| #4 The Secure Border Initiative includes provisions to end "catch and release" and to build additional fencing, as well as the deployment of a variety of sensing technologies along the border. |
| Posted by: Biff Wellington 2007-04-13 11:25 |
| #3 As Hadrian's Wall and the Great Wall demonstrated, if you don't have the manpower and will to back it up, no wall will impede those intent upon |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-04-13 09:34 |
| #2 Moments later, the Agent locates the illegal aliens and makes the apprehensions. And in an hour or so Homeland [IN]Security releases them inside the US with only a promise to appear in court. There fixed it for ya! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2007-04-13 08:41 |
| #1 8 to 30 billion dollar cost but we cant afford a fence? |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2007-04-13 08:26 |