AMERICAN EYES IN OUR SKY

Unmanned Plane Patrolling Stretch Of Canada-U. S. Border

A warning to Canadians smuggling batches of "B. C. bud" or other
contraband into the United States: Beware the eyes in the sky.

An unmanned plane the U.S. government has been using to patrol North
Dakota's northern border since 2009 is now flying along a greater
section of America's northern frontier, stretching from Spokane,
Washington, to the Lake of the Woods region in Minnesota.

Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection say the aircraft
can transmit live, streaming video and radar images from above the
huge swaths of remote terrain that are a haven for criminals sneaking
marijuana and ecstasy into the U.S. and cocaine into Canada.

"We're trying to work the border smarter, not harder," said John
Priddy, director of National Air Security Operations Center-Grand
Forks in North Dakota, where the aircraft is based. "There's new
technology being deployed, which will make it more difficult to
conduct illicit activities."

Resembling a giant mechanical wasp, the remote-controlled Predator
B-- which has a length of 12 metres and a wingspan of 20 metres --
can stay in the air for 20 hours at a time and typically flies at
about 6,000 metres.

It is equipped with infrared sensors and ground-movement detectors
and can produce radar images showing tire tracks, shoe impressions
and anything else that looks out of place.

Priddy said officials are not deploying the plane each day with an
expectation that they will catch a criminal in the act. Instead, they
send the Predator B to specific areas of the border, which have been
flagged by authorities, and conduct surveillance missions --
sometimes over a period of days.

Priddy said the aircraft has contributed to arrests, though he
declined to elaborate because investigations are ongoing.

Supt. Warren Coons, director of the RCMP Integrated Border
Enforcement Team, said Wednesday he has not received information
about the surveillance program's effectiveness and declined to offer
a personal opinion.

Coons said there are no plans to adopt such technology in Canada, but
he wouldn't discount it, either. He noted Canadian authorities use
other forms of visible and covert technology -- he declined to say
what -- at points of entry and in remote sections along the border.
Improved communication between U.S. and Canadian authorities has
helped to identify vulnerable areas, he said.