For near a decade now , 10 Predator B monotone have been zip around our nations ’s borders at $ 12,000 an hour under the pretending of procure our borders . Except that , according to a vituperative story released earlier today by Homeland Security , not only do these poke cost five time as much as push , but they ’re doing an all around shitty line , to boot .
Part of the problem , though , is the fact that Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) simply does n’t have the men necessary to actually put all the laggard to use . While each drone pipe was supposed to be on patrol around 16 hours a daytime , it actually ended up averaging out to less than a quarter of that . The Washington Post citeslack of personnel , spare part , and bad conditions as part of the reason the drones stayed grounded for so long .
Either way , the drones are wildly uneffective for how much money we ’re spending on them . In Arizona , less than two precent of all delimitation - crossing misgiving could be assign to the drones . In Texas , that number is less than one percent . And all the while , these things are bleed money . According to the report :
We estimate that , in financial twelvemonth 2013 , it cost at least $ 62.5 million to operate the programme , or about $ 12,255 per [ trajectory ] hour . We estimate that , in financial year 2013 , it cost at least $ 62.5 million to operate the programme , or about $ 12,255 per [ flight of stairs ] hour .
These new revelations are coming out amidst a recent push for a $ 443 million design to buy even more of the “ dubious achievers , ” as the report penned by Department of Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth refers to them . Now though , that plan , which would more than replicate the entire figure of drones to an obscene 24 , may very well cease up shelved . allot to the paper :
In accession , Congress and the public may be unaware of all the resource practice to the program . As a result , CBP has invested significant funds in a programme that has not achieved the expected results , and it can not establish how much the program has improved molding certificate . The $ 443 million CBP plans to drop on program expansion could be put to better use by place in choice .
What ’s more , despite the fact thatDHS had purportedly claimedto have “ extend unmanned aircraft system insurance coverage to the entire Southwest Border , ” the drones are actually only patrolling about 100 miles of the Arizona delimitation and 70 miles of the Texas molding .
you may ( and should ) read the report in full down below — it ’s high-risk . Hopefully this will pave the agency for at least pop a discussion about putting that money into something more worthwhile . Of course , with the way Congress influence these days , that ’s wishful cerebration . But hey , at least someone ’s getting some use out of them . [ Free Beacon ]
ikon via Getty / Gary Williams
delimitation patrolDroneshomeland security
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