Drones Could Provide Virtual Border Security

Could the infamous border “wall” be more virtual than physical? The revised spending bill includes $100 million for a “technological approach” to border security, including fixed towers, remote video surveillance systems, and drones.

The 600+ page Consolidated Appropriations Act features $100 million for “border surveillance technology to include technologies such as fixed towers, remote video surveillance systems, mobile surveillance capability on the northern border, and innovative towers.”

It also mentions an additional 2018 carryover of $200 million for “cross border tunnel threat; integrated fixed towers, linear ground detection including fiber optics, mobile video surveillance systems; remote video surveillance systems, and small unmanned aerial systems.”

This creates some very interesting scenarios. The compromise bill mainly funds a physical wall -- $1.38 billion’s worth – though President Trump will probably declare a national emergency, and that could free up more money. But virtual border security could end up being the best bipartisan compromise.

And it’s not that far-fetched. Various domestic agencies – including the FBI and the US Border Patrol – already use drones, and in some cases, like AeroVironment's hand-launched Raven, the tech is nearly identical to military equipment. Each Raven costs $200,000 and can stay aloft for 60-90 minutes. A fleet of those, plus complimentary systems, could do wonders for border security.

The 30-foot tall “big, beautiful wall” envisioned by the Commander in Chief is fairly crude. It’s literally just a large obstacle with little in the way of smart detection (on its own, anyway). Drones would provide a virtually omniscient surveillance system, and each UAV is a prodigious force-multiplier.

Of course, the high-tech solution comes with its own laundry list of problems. Drug cartels have shown the ability to hack drones, and I’m curious how the public would react to aerial mass surveillance (at the border, mind you).

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) believes a “smart wall” would be “just and merciful.” He defines this as “one that uses drones, scanners, and sensors to create a technological barrier too high to climb over, too wide to go around, and too deep to burrow under.”

But the President is clearly invested in a physical wall, and most Republicans agree. And I wonder how much of the left would agree with a massive drone deployment. Code Pink, for example, is fervently against a physical wall, and they’re no less enamored with drones.

What do you think?

Leave your comments below and read more about this issue here: https://www.cnet.com/news/trumps-border-wall-could-be-a-virtual-barrier-patrolled-by-drones-too/