U.S. ADDS DRONES TO FIGHT SMUGGLING

PALMDALE, Calif. -- To help spot and track smugglers, the Homeland
Security Department is expanding its use of drones, the unmanned
aircraft widely used in Iraq and other war zones, beyond the Mexican
and Canadian borders to the Caribbean and possibly other seas.

The department, through its Customs and Border Protection division,
already operates five of the aircraft, known as the Predator B, along
the Southwest border from a base in Arizona and the Canadian border
from an installation in North Dakota.

Like the drones used by the military, these drones can fly long
ranges at high altitudes and are difficult to detect. But the drones
that have been used at the border since 2005 are for surveillance and
tracking and do not carry weapons.

The department on Monday unveiled a new drone loaded with special
radar, cameras and sensors. Built for $13.5 million by General
Atomics Aeronautical Systems here, it is designed for maritime use.
It features wide-range radar that gives a more sweeping view of the
ocean than any of the government's fleet of manned aircraft.

The first maritime drones, about the size of a small turbo-prop
commuter plane, will start flying in January off Florida, a smuggling hotbed.

A second drone is scheduled to take flight by summer in the Gulf of Mexico.

Both ultimately will also be used to patrol off the coast of Central
America and Mexico, where drug traffickers use watercraft to bring
cocaine from South America.

Officials are not sure if the drones will be used off or over
Southern California. While there has been an increase recently in the
smuggling of drugs and people on the seas there, congested airspace
from several commercial airports and military bases could make use of
the drone difficult.

A Customs drone -- like all others controlled by human pilots from a
remote location -- that was flying over a sparsely populated area
crashed into an Arizona hillside about 100 yards from a house in
2006, causing no injuries or property damage. The National
Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to human error and
made several recommendations to make the program safer, most but not
all of which were adopted by Customs and Border Protection.

Still, Homeland Security officials praised the aircraft as a safe and
important tool that over land has contributed to the seizing of more
than 22,000 pounds of marijuana and the apprehension of 5,000 illegal
immigrants.

"This is an extraordinary step forward," said Adm. Thad W. Allen of
the Coast Guard, which will join Customs and Border Protection on
drone missions. "It will help us immeasurably."

Michael C. Kostelnik, an assistant commissioner at Customs and Border
Protection, said the drones could fly more than 20 hours at a time,
more than double the typical manned mission of about 10 hours.

They travel 275 miles an hour and, Mr. Kostelnik said, are far
quieter than conventional aircraft to the point of being virtually
imperceptible to anyone on the ground or seas below them.

"Right out of the chute they could do things nothing else could do,"
said Mr. Kostelnik, standing next to the whale-gray aircraft, which
was formally presented to his agency at an afternoon ceremony here.

The drones do have limitations. They operate under what is known as
visual flight rules, which means the weather must be clear enough for
controllers to see where it is going, somewhat limiting its use.

The program has its critics. The union for Border Patrol agents has
criticized the drones as costly and inefficient and has suggested the
money would be better spent on adding workers and equipment on the ground.

"Unmanned aircraft serve a very useful role in military combat
situations, but are not economical or efficient in civilian law
enforcement applications," said T. J. Bonner, president of the Border
Patrol union. "There are a number of other technologies that are
capable of providing a greater level of usefulness at a far lower
cost. It appears that the contractors have once again managed to sell
a bill of goods to the politicians and bureaucrats who oversee the
procurement of technology designed to secure our borders."