Civilian-built spy aircraft monitors U.S. southern border
By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times
Published April 24, 2005


PALOMINAS, Ariz. -- With a 10-foot wingspan, the ability to reach speeds of 65 mph, onboard cameras and heat-seeking devices, the Border Hawk could become the newest weapon in the government's effort to shut down illegal aliens and drug smugglers.

That's what Chuck Floyd, a retired U.S. Army officer who lives in Maryland and visited last week with the Minuteman Project volunteers here, thinks about a drone airplane being tested in a dusty desert field just north of the Mexican border.

"This airplane could be a valuable component in the government's ability to combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling," he told The Washington Times as the plane maneuvered along the border during an early-afternoon test.

"It can spot those who cross the border illegally from an altitude of 400 feet and stay on them until the U.S. Border Patrol can respond. Its potential is limitless," said Mr. Floyd, who also oversaw the construction of U.S. embassies and the implementation of security enhancements at those facilities for the State Department after his retirement from the military.

The Border Hawk was built by the American Border Patrol (ABP), a local private watchdog organization that posts pictures of illegal immigration on the border to draw attention to a rising flood of migration along the Arizona border.

Of the 1.15 million illegal aliens apprehended last year by the Border Patrol, more than 40 percent were caught along a 260-mile area of the U.S.-Mexico border known as the Tucson sector.

ABP member Michael King, who helped design and build the wooden plane "from scratch," said it has the capability of staying airborne for more than two hours and can scan the border with its onboard camera equipment. He refers to the aircraft as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

"With monitors mounted in a van at a central location, you see immediately what the camera sees, day or night," Mr. King said as he tested the craft near the San Pedro River, a favorite corridor for illegal aliens and drug smugglers headed north.

The airplane, painted white with Border Hawk emblazoned on the fuselage, uses low-light cameras, night-vision equipment and an infrared camera. It is manually launched from a short runway and, once at a safe altitude, is switched to autopilot.

Mr. King said the plane's thermal imaging system captures would-be border crossers by detecting body heat.

"There's no hiding from these cameras," he said. "If you're out there, they will find you."

The 20-pound plane, working in tandem with ground sensors, is monitored on numerous video screens located in a command center -- in this case, a van parked in the desert near the river, just a stone's throw from where it enters the United States from Mexico. The video from the aircraft can be downloaded immediately on the Internet and broadcast live.

Mr. King has conducted numerous tests and operational flights along the border of the aircraft over the past year, documenting what he described as "dozens of suspected border intruders" as they crossed undetected into the United States.

The designers and builders of the Border Hawk aircraft have spent about $250,000 in development costs through Border Technologies Inc., a private enterprise that resulted from the ABP effort to build a successful UAV.

The U.S. Army recently sent a team to observe the Border Hawk, but made no commitment to the program.

Mr. Floyd said the aircraft has the ability to tell the federal government -- and the American public -- immediately what is happening on the border, allowing those responsible to respond and apprehend illegal crossers and drug smugglers.

"Securing this border should be a primary concern of every elected official," said Mr. Floyd, a Republican candidate for Congress in Maryland's 8th District. "This plane gives the government a better opportunity to control this border if it really wants to."