Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would like to purchase six aerial surveillance radar that combine ground moving target indicator data and synthetic aperture radar imagery for use on the nation’s southwest border based on ongoing operational evaluations, a senior agency official said yesterday.
CBP has been testing the Northrop Grumman [NOC]-built Vehicle Dismount and Exploitation Radar (VaDER) radar since early 2011 aboard a Predator B unmanned aircraft system (Defense Daily, April 23, 2012). The radar is on loan from the Army, Randolph Alles, assistant commissioner for CBP’s Office of Air and Marine, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Alles said that there is funding for two VaDER radar in the FY ’13 budget and the agency has plans to buy two more with an objective requirement of six.
Alles also said that CBP would like to expand the use of the radar to manned aircraft and is piggybacking on an Army development effort that is looking into this. Integrating the radar on manned platforms would provide more flexibility to aerial surveillance operations, he said.
The VaDER system has been effective in border surveillance operations.
During a recent visit to the southwest border, “I heard about a remarkable new radar being tested on a drone, called the VaDER, that is providing the Border Patrol with an unprecedented view of the people coming across the border,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks. He also mentioned that CBP is testing another radar system that “allows agents to detect physical changes to the ground, such as footsteps, to identify where illegal traffic is heading.”
What makes the VaDER valuable in the border security environment is its ability to track smaller and slower moving targets than traditional radar systems. In the military’s case, the radar gives it the capability to track dismounted targets, such as insurgents planting roadside bombs, at tactical ranges.
Recent media report also said that the VaDER has revealed gaps in border security. The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the system has show that the Border Patrol has stopped less than half of the illegal migrants that have crossed into the United States along a stretch of border in Arizona.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested that CBP should make more use of the VaDER radar systems, adding that he has seen them in operation in Iraq and “it seems to me that that’s an incredible technology tool.”
Alles said the VaDER radar cost about $8 million apiece. He said that CBP’s Joint Field Command is currently reviewing the operational integration of the radar system to better understand the agency’s needs for it and how it would impact the use of other air assets.
CBP is also looking at putting more sensors on low-cost aircraft to gain greater efficiencies and cost savings, Alles said. Air and Marine is currently flying Textron’s [TXT] Cessna C-206 single-engine plane with a sensor worth about five times the price of the aircraft, he said. FLIR Corp.‘s [FLIR] Star Safire HD multi-spectral imaging system is the sensor package on the C-206.
A CBP spokesman told Defense Daily that the cost to run the C-206 versus the agency’s Multirole Enforcement Aircraft per flight hour with similar sensor capabilities is “inexpensive.” He added that the C-206 may not work for every mission assignment, which is why a different platform would be used.