Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced that U.S. Border Patrol will soon begin testing small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) in an operational environment as part of a pilot program in late September.
According to CBP, each sUAS unit will allow agents in the field to conduct field reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, tracking and acquisition capabilities in areas considered too high of a risk for manned aircraft or agents on the ground. Testing will be conducted in three Border Patrol sectors — Tucson, Rio Grande Valley and Swanton.
For the pilot project, three series of aircraft will be tested including Puma, Raven and InstantEYE Quadcopters, each of which is designed to be portable in size and rapidly deployable.
“We anticipate the sUAS program to be a valuable tool for Border Patrol’s highly trained law enforcement personnel in securing our borders and helping identify and intercept illicit activity along U.S. borders,” Acting U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said.
She continued, stating that the aircraft will enable Border Patrol agents to surveil remote areas not easily accessible by other means, which is critical to the agency’s ability to secure the border and will be invaluable in humanitarian missions.
Testing will consist of two pilot rotations in each of the three sectors. Testing rotations will first begin in the Tucson sector in September, while Rio Grande Valley sector testing will begin in January 2018.
CBP noted the program is compliant with all Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, policies and laws and that agents will test sUAS under an approved memorandum of understanding between the FAA and Border Patrol.