Warbird Information Exchange

Drone to start surveying U.S.-Canada border
Windsor Star 02/17/2009
Author: Canwest News Service

OTTAWA - The U.S. is scheduled to start flying an unmanned and unarmed drone over the U.S.-Canada border Tuesday, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman tells Canwest News Service.

Juan Munoz-Torres of U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the Predator drone will survey a 370 kilometre stretch of the Manitoba-North Dakota border at about 20,000 feet.

The drone will fly no closer than 15 kilometres from the border, said Munoz-Torres. A single drone will be surveying the border at first but "in the future we may have more, it will be determined as we move along with this operation," he added.

The drone is equipped with hi-definition sensors that can spot an object as far as 35 kilometres away, he said.

To date the Border Patrol had been testing the readiness of the drone, which will be flying out of Grand Forks, N.D.

The launch of the drone flights is taking place as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has asked for a review of vulnerabilities along the world's longest undefended boundary.

Not to be out done by their American counterparts, the Canadian Border Agency (CBA) recently announced their choice of UAV that will patrol the skies above the Canada/US border. The Poutine A - "unpersoned aerial vehicle" is a US designed drone and according to the details of the agreement, will be built under license by Bombardier and operated for the CBA by the Canadian Air Force out of an undisclosed base in southern Ontario. The license includes the exchange of technology and the acquisition of enough engines and spare parts to maintain the fleet of 20 aircraft for the next 50 years. Details of the surveillance equipment was not released due to security concerns.

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You'd be surprised how many pot fields are located near the Canadian border and how much drug trafficking occurs across the US/Canadian border.

It's all about PC. The leaders don't want to appear to be biased against Mexico where the real problems are, so they cover both so Calderon won't whine.