UAS: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
Shannon Gibson
Unmanned Systems, Module 6, Assignment 6.4
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
There is
significant interest in remotely piloted aircraft used in place of manned
aircraft with respect towards domestic threats. Several issues highlighted when speaking of
border control issues; estimate of 500,000 illegal immigrants ever the U.S.
each year, heavy drug traffic from the southern boarders and terrorist entry. A
highly versatile unmanned aircraft system (UAS), used by the U.S. Air Force,
Royal Air Force and other government entities is the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1
Predator. This aircraft is a turboprop powered, with the ability to be
developed and modified for a multitude of missions due to the capacity to hold
up to 3000 pounds of payloads (GA, 2015). There are several missions that unmanned
aircraft have been identified as mission essential for; fixed target
surveillance, border counter migrant missions, counter-drug missions and
incident reconnaissance (Guerra & McNerney. 2015).
The United States (U.S.)
Customs and Border Patrol Protection (CBT), Office of Air and Marine (AOM) use
the MQ-9 Predator B unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for our nations boarders to
protect against threats (CBP, 2015).
This specific, platform aptly named The Guardian, was modified from the
standard Predator B with structural, avionics and communication enhancements
and infrared sensors more apt for the missions in maritime operations (CBP,
2015). Currently, there are six of these
UAS assigned to the border of the southwest region of the U.S., two in the
northern border and two in Florida (CBT, 2015). The performance of this
particular aircraft is an endurance of up to 20 hours, with both fixed and
mobile ground control stations, speeds up to 240 knots, altitudes up to 50,000
feet with electro-optical/infrared sensors which increases awareness in any
environment on all targets (CBT, 2015).
There are several
constraints to operating a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) domestically, inclusive
of; the Secretary of Defense must approve operations that are within the realm
of the Department of Defense, if it includes imagery, higher authority must
approve that as well and Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly in
particular areas (Guerra & McNerney. 2015).
The imagery collection restrictions are strictly adhered to preserve
privacy for civilian citizens. This can be and has led to legal ramifications
for UAS entities, as citizens worry bout their privacy when the government has the
ability to fly over their homes and film. While there are authorizations in
place from the FAA by the name of Certificate of Authorization (COA), it can
take up to 60 days to get these permissions, and that can become burdensome
when the need arises unexpectedly.
This
aircraft replaces not only manned aircraft but border patrol agents in the
areas of man-power needed to cover large areas, ability to film and use
surveillance for lengthy hours and uses technology which gives more information
than previously used means. As the FAA
streamlines the regulation of UAS and as the UAS slowly takes the missions in a
cheaper and safer manner than manned aircraft systems, we will continue to see
improvements in all aspects of the operations.
General Atomics. Predator B RPA.
(2015) Retrieved 18 September 2015 from,
http://www.ga-asi.com/predator-b
Guerra, S., McNerney, M. (2015) Air
National Guard Remotely Piloted Aircraft and Domestic Missions. Opportunities
and Challenges. Retrieved 18 September 2015 from, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1000/RR1016/RAND_RR1016.pdf
U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Guardian UAS Maritime Variant Predator B. 2015) Fact Sheet. Retrieved 18
September 2015 from, http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/guardian_b_7.pdf
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