Homeland Security drone program not justifying expense, says study

[jakeXT]

Source: CBS News

...

With 7,000 miles of U.S. land to patrol increasingly, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is relying on drones to help arrest illegal immigrants.

But a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's report raises questions about whether the program is worth it. In 2013, it accounted for 2,200 arrests. There are 10 drones flying in the program at a cost of $62 million a year.


...

Over the last ten years, this unmanned "Eye in the Sky" program has cost nearly $500 million and it's getting an additional $443 million in funding. DHS expected 23,000 total flight hours per year, but it has only logged about 5,100. It has claimed that the drones would operate along the entire southwest border, but according to the Inspector General, they did not.

...

Customs and Border Protection says it disagrees with the report's portrayal of the Unmanned Aircraft System program. Last year, agency officials say UAS missions contributed to the seizure of nearly $253 million worth of cocaine and marijuana. They also led to weapons seizures, arrests and the detection of nearly 8,000 suspected illegal immigrants.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/homeland-security-drone-program-not-justifying-expense-report-says/

[Recursion]

2. Wait... $12,400 per flight-hour?

The whole point of drones is they're supposed to be cheaper than manned flight, and $12K per hour isn't...

[cstanleytech]

3. Ya I mean you would think that they would be cheaper because of things like the fuel savings by not

having to put people themselves into the air which you have to do with an airplane or helicopter.

[Recursion]

4. Exactly. I'm guessing there's a lot of admin costs behind this

DHS is a giant abyss that eats money.

[cstanleytech]

5. Or maybe they arent using them exclusively for border patrol?

After all if they are using them for other things other than border patrol it could maybe explain it also.

[Recursion]

6. True, I suppose they could be secretly lending them to DEA

Though I'd also say never put a limit on how stunningly incompetent and wasteful DHS can be

[mopinko]

13. yup. everything going according to plan.

just what it was designed to be.

[delrem]

7. Why isn't the US just as concerned with the even longer land border with Canada?

It's even less watched, less defended. Shouldn't the USA be freaking out?

[Tunkamerica]

8. well, i mean... c'mon

they're mostly white, so... where's the harm?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

10. Because Canadians don't want into the US.

Other than to vacation occasionally.

It';s the Canadians who have to watch out for Americans trying to flee to a better life...

[delrem]

12. Come and listen to a story about a man named Cruz

A dirty M..F..er, not quite right in his head,
Then one day he was shootin off his mouth,
and out of his ass came some dribbling crude.

Shit that is, a steaming pile.
....
Renounced his Canadian citizenship. Thanks be to the great spaghetti monster.

But anyway, you're wrong. Borders are by nature porous, citizens of bordering countries have lots in common - family ties. Yes, even US/Mexico, regardless of US hysteria over "infiltration of those people". People travel, migrate, for all kinds of reasons.

I think Tunkamerica's suggestion has merit.

[DeSwiss]

9. K&R

- Yes, Big Brother knows what you're growing in the backyard.....

[jakeXT]

11. A good name that Argus