By Christopher Sherman
The Virginian-Pilot
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Two Border Patrol agents walked by a patch of brush on a remote ranch and saw nothing. But 19,000 feet overhead in the night sky, a Predator unmanned aircraft kept its heat-sensing eye on the spot.
In an operations center about 80 miles away, all eyes were on a suspicious dark cluster on a video screen. Moments later, the drone operators triggered the craft’s infrared beam and directed the agents straight to the undergrowth, where two silent figures were hiding.
Last week’s mission was just another night out for a Predator program that is playing a larger role in the nation’s border security as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection adds to its force of unmanned aircraft. The agency received its second Predator B aircraft in Texas last month and will add its sixth overall on the Southwest border when another is based in Arizona by the end of the year.
The aircraft are credited with apprehending more than 7,500 people since they were deployed six years ago. They bring the latest in military technology to one of the oldest cat-and-mouse pursuits in the country. But on the border, even sophisticated devices struggle with the weather and conditions.
“I’m trying to mark. I’m looking for a hole in the clouds,” said an exasperated operator as he lost his video image. Cloud cover, along with crosswinds and rain, are the drones’ enemies.
The Predators, used in Iraq and Afghanistan, were introduced on the border in 2005, the year before Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on his country’s drug gangs and violence along the border exploded. Since then, the aircraft have logged more than 10,000 flight hours and aided in intercepting 46,600 pounds of illegal drugs.
“It’s like any other law enforcement platform,” said Lothar Eckardt, director of the Office of Air and Marine’s Predator operation, housed at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. “No different than a helicopter.”
Some question whether the remotely piloted aircrafts’ impact justifies the price. A Predator system - the plane, sensors, control consoles and antennas - costs $18.5 million.
“The big knock on the UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) program ... is that it’s so expensive,” said T.J. Bonner, former president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents’ union. He said the money would be better spent on more boots on the ground and manned aircraft.
On that mission in the predawn hours Tuesday, the Predator guided agents tracking a group of six to eight illegal immigrants through thick clusters of oak trees and high grass an hour north of the Rio Grande. The Predator illuminated two men lying in the undergrowth.
“It’s awesome,” Border Patrol agent Daniel Hernandez said. “It’s a great asset to have here - something that made my job a little more efficient.”
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