2 hours ago
2
US Customs and Border Protection is softly doubling down connected a surveillance strategy built astir human-portable drones, according to national contracting records reviewed by WIRED. The displacement is pushing borderline enforcement toward a distributed strategy that tin way enactment successful existent clip and, critics warn, whitethorn widen good beyond the border.
New marketplace probe conducted this period shows that, alternatively than relying connected larger, centralized drone platforms, CBP is concentrating connected lightweight uncrewed craft that tin beryllium launched rapidly by tiny teams, stay operational nether biology stress, and relay surveillance information straight to frontline units. The documents stress portability, accelerated setup, and integration with instrumentality already utilized by borderline patrol.
Those requirements physique connected earlier inquiries that amusement CBP steadily locking successful its operational priorities: drones susceptible of detecting question successful distant terrain, rapidly cueing agents with coordinates, and functioning reliably successful heat, dust, and precocious winds. Past requests highlighted the integration of cameras, infrared sensors, and mapping bundle to assistance agents find and intercept targeted radical crossed deserts, rivers, and coastal corridors.
CBP antecedently zeroed successful connected vertical-takeoff and -landing drones tiny capable to beryllium carried and launched by idiosyncratic teams, portion mounting wide benchmarks for formation time, deployment speed, and show successful austere environments. The requests besides made wide that these systems were meant to bash much than observe. They were expected to actively usher operations, piping unrecorded determination information into the aforesaid integer tools agents usage to coordinate responses successful the field.
This month’s update sharpens that approach, signaling that CBP is nary longer simply exploring what drones tin bash but refining what it wants them to bash well: deploy fast, past longer, and present actionable intel straight to quality agents. CBP presently operates a small-drone fleet of roughly 500 uncrewed systems, according to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, underscoring that these craft person go a regular portion of borderline enforcement.
At a House Homeland Security Committee proceeding successful December, Department of Homeland Security caput Kristi Noem told lawmakers that DHS has been “investing upwards to $1.5 billion” successful drone and counter-drone exertion and “mitigation measures” that tin beryllium utilized not lone for federally secured peculiar events, specified arsenic the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but besides done agreements that fto DHS “partner with cities and states” connected extortion they “don’t presently have.”
The increasing accent connected small, unit-level drones does not mean CBP is abandoning larger aircraft, however, contempt years of scrutiny implicit the agency’s reliance connected military-grade systems.
English (US) ·