Border patrol aircraft stationed at Fort Drum

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:13:52 GMT — The unmanned Predator aircraft is patrolling the border between the U.S. and Canada as part of a multi-agency effort called Operation Empire Shield.

"Typically we'll fly an 18 hour mission in the predator, said John Stanton from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. So you're rotating a bunch of crews through the ground control station."

The plane and ground crew are at Fort Drum until later this month. The pilots work out of a small facility near a hangar. They can control the plane from the ground and use its optics to scan for trouble on the lake and near the border.

"Depending on the location of where we're looking, we can dispatch a vehicle, watercraft, even aircraft out of Plattsburgh to investigate further, said Erik Soykan while demonstrating video clips from the cameras on board the plane.

Even though there's no pilot, one challenge for this plane is the weather. The lens can see up to twenty five miles but not through clouds.

"So if there's a whole bunch of clouds obscuring the ground, meaning you can't see the sun and if we're up there for the purpose of seeing if anyone is on the lake or crossing the border illegally, we wouldn't be able to see it with the optical system because the optics don't see through a cloud, said Stanton.

What it can see on a clear day is pretty impressive. The crew demonstrated clear pictures of boats that were taken fourteen miles away.

"I could probably tell if there were two people on the back of that boat fishing or trying to drop bundles off into the water, trying to dump evidence, said Soykan. We could determine that."

Customs and Border Protection are determining where to best use the Predator aircraft they have as they expand their use in patrols along the northern border of the United States.