Watching the border

Defending a very long frontier [via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs]:

THE United States government is poised to begin flying unmanned surveillance aircraft along the Canadian border, using Grand Forks as the takeoff point for the robot-controlled flights [actually the flights are controlled by humans on the ground, not robots--though no doubt the Pentagon is working on the latter - MC].

Before September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an arm of the federal Department of Homeland Security, will start sending propeller-driven drones called Predators into American airspace. At first one drone, with more to follow, will span much of the 8,900-kilometre frontier Canada and the U.S. share between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Never before has the U.S. kept such a close watch over its northern boundary. The move is a response to growing American fears that the entry of even one potential terrorist through Canada could have serious consequences, said Scott Baker. He took over last Friday as Chief Patrol Agent of Customs and Border Protection in Grand Forks, N.D., responsible for guarding the 1,400-kilometre stretch of border between Lake Superior and Montana...

Predators, known by the military as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have flown missions along the U.S.-Mexico border for several years, Baker said...

All part of a wider effort on the northern border:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection in North Dakota will also get 22 pilots to fly manned missions in airplanes and helicopters, a deployment similar to others in Bellingham, Wash., Great Falls, Mont. and Plattsburgh, N.Y...

But fair's fair: the US just has higher technology (and perceives a greater cross-border threat, a perception about which the Canadian government is rather sensitive).

Mark C.

Posted by markc at January 15, 2007 09:05 PM