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U.S. Border Patrol Drone Goes Down, Rest of Fleet Grounded
coondoggie writes "The U.S. Customs and Border Protection service said today it has grounded its nine remaining unmanned aircraft after one of them was forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean. The unmanned aircraft had an unknown mechanical failure while on patrol off the southern California coast. The crew determined that it wouldn't make it back to Sierra Vista, Arizona, 'and put the aircraft down in the water.' The drone cost about $12 million. 'The Predator B, also known as the MQ-9 Reaper in the U.S. Air Force, can fly as many as 27 hours and reach an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), according to the website of Poway, California-based General Atomics. It has a wingspan of 66 feet (20 meters) and can carry more than 3,000 pounds (1,361 kilograms) of cameras, weapons or other payload, according to the company.'"
Anyone else read that as "of 3,000 pounds of cocaine, weapons or other payload"?
I wonder who will get there first.
A few months back when a drone went down in the Great Lakes region, didn't the government say something along the lines of, "Don't worry about it. It was just a drill. We have no plan to have drones flying over US air space," or am I just mis-remembering things?
It's a shame that San Diego is now so huge that there isn't a single spot to land between the pacific and Arizona...
Why do we need such powerful military grade drones just to keep tabs on illegal aliens crossing our borders? A bunch of cheap quadcopters with infrared and other cameras could do the job.
They're not deporting illegals. Anyone with political pull is on the verge of letting a bunch of known law breakers become citizens while law abiding immigrants are getting thrown under the bus. Just more federal government arm flexing with no real action and certainly no positive results.
This country is fucked.
Thanks for the heads up; see you on the other side.
Has it occurred to the government how deadly effective these new toys could be in the wrong hands?
It's Superbowl week, just saying...
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Maybe it was Iran (or a Mexican cartel) busting the RSA-based encryption that scared the Border Patrol.
One hundred twenty million dollars for 10 drones. It probably came out of the US' food stamp budget.
Please complete this sentence:
I think they already [are/are not] in the wrong hands.
Sent from my ENIAC
If sabotaging one border-patrolling drone grounds all the rest of them, what better way to help those poor aliens sneak into the US — illegally?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
A Predator B belonging to Customs flew into a hillside near Nogales, AZ in 2006 after an operator inadvertently shut off the plane's engine trying to repair a radio-link failure.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Well, considering he notes that it's Superbowl week, I was thinking of San Francisco 49ers fans.
How long until the Mexican drug cartels start contracting out for anti-drone drones?
If $10,000 buys an anti-drone drone, it would be a cheap way to take out a $12M drone and rack up huge expenses on the American side.
Amateurs have already built a 366mph jet powered UAV (faster than the MQ-9 drone) - I'm sure on the international black market, better quality drones are already available. And they get bonus PR points if they can get the drone to crash on a populated area (or truck the remains of the crashed drone to a populated area) showing what a menace they are.
It was the Tijuana Air Defense Network.
Horale Vatos!
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Went down to smell the fish.
That's right about the Coronado Islands which are in the waters of Mexico. Was the drone operating at sea? Perhaps looking for high speed pangas running pot and cocaine to California? If they were flying over the border on land, why couldn't they have landed at Halsey Field or Miramar NAS?
It's a shame that San Diego is now so huge that there isn't a single spot to land between the pacific and Arizona...
Customs and Border Protection says the drone was on a border security mission when a mechanical problem developed about 20 miles southwest of San Diego late Monday night. Spokesman Mike Friel says the crew operating the drone from Texas decided to crash it in the ocean.
The $12 million surveillance drone was one of 10 that Homeland Security uses to patrol the border with Mexico. It was just one of two Predator B drones equipped with radar specifically designed to be used over the ocean.
Friel says the cause of the mechanical failure is unknown and that the remainder of the drone fleet has been temporarily grounded while the investigation into the incident continues.
DHS Drone Crashes Into Pacific off Calif Coast
The second direction the design took was the "Predator B-003", referred to by GA as the "Altair", which has a new airframe with an 84-foot (25.6 m) wingspan and a takeoff weight of about 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg). Like the Predator B-001, it is powered by a TP-331-10T turboprop. This variant has a payload capacity of 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg), a maximum ceiling of 52,000 feet (15.8 km), and an endurance of 36 hours.
General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper
Ten tons. 36 hours. If your control of the aircraft is compromised, you bring it down over the water.
[commie]
Wonder how many school lunches you could have served to poor kids for twelve million dollars.
[/commie]
I was going to write something really derogatory about Obama but this story just rocks shit loads.
Yea, like, i'm really sorry.
You can buy a whole load of DJI Phantoms for that price. Quantity over quality.
Airforce.
Quadcopters wouldn't make nearly as much money for the aerospace industry as $12million/copy drones.
...a licensed drone hunter is celebrating and punching his tag. Too bad he won't be able to retrieve and field dress his kill.
The MQ-9 Reaper is NOT the same thing as a Predator. It's the same air frame and base configuration, but they are very different craft. The MQ-9 has a 900HP engine, where as the Pred has a 115HP. The Reaper can go about twice as far, twice as fast. The predator has about a 2,000lb payload capacity while the Reaper clocks in at over 10,000lb. Finally, and most importantly, all of this extra power and payload capacity comes into play because the Reaper is a weapons platform, carrying everything form air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles to JDAMs. A Reaper is an all out killing machine. The day that any US Dept or Agency starts flying Reapers around US airspace on patrol, short of us having been invaded, is the day we have a very, very big problem on our hands.
Good shooting!
No left turn unstoned.
Screw dredging for gold.... If one of these suckers is worth 18 million bucks, I'm diving for that!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
They should just ask the cia for the drugs, the CIA is the biggest importer you know.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
All the old farts over 60yo need zero voting rights.
They had their day, free stuff, they dont deserve to vote, because they have had their life and dont need to contribute to the voting future that needs to be controlled by us younger smarter new generations.
Stupid govt silver heads, utter dumb asses.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.