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.'"

WTF?

[samantha]

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.

Sabotage?..

[mi]

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?

Forget not Hanlon's shaving gear

[rmdingler]

The article (I know, right?) claims the cost of each Predator B is $18 Million.

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.

Re:Pacific, or Arizona ?

[plover]

I was thinking ditching it may have been a deliberate choice to keep it out of the hands of the American public. Just imagine some hackers getting to the wreckage first and disassembling the electronics and optics to learn its true capabilities.

If you're going to rely on a secret weapon to keep the bad guys guessing, you have to keep it secret.