For the last four years, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Office has been operating the Predator MQ-9 UAS in the national airspace system. The topic of operating unmanned vehicles in the national airspace system (NAS) has raised many questions. The CPB Assistant Commissioner Michael Kostelnik has announced the office brought the MQ-9 Predator B UAS to display at Oshkosh. The CBP decided to bring the MQ-9 Predator to the annual air show so that pilots could see the physical size of the air vehicle and talk about their operations in the NAS.
Kostelnik said that the office has a model of the Predator that it often has on display in their booth. As some unmanned vehicles are the same size as the model, some visitors confused the models size with the real vehicle. They assumed that the model on display was the same size as the real Predator. “I can understand that people would be very concerned if we were flying many small vehicles” he said. The model has approximately a 7 foot wing span, where the real Predator has a wingspan of 64 feet! The MQ-9 on display is a much larger and more powerful version of the older MQ-1 Predator. The MQ-1 was powered by a 115 hp piston engine, where the MQ-9 is powered with a 950 shaft horse power turboprop engine. The MQ-9 can carry roughly 3,000 lbs of payload and fly up to 52,000 feet. Unlike a manned aircraft the MQ-9 Predator operates as a system. Supporting any one MQ-9 will be a pilot, sensor operator, intelligence officers, legal officers and other team members. Having a team allows the CBP to the MQ-9 asset very effectively. Not only will the vehicles support their normal missions, but they will also assist in times of natural disaster such as hurricanes and floods. The Assistant Commissioner said that the Predator “doesn’t replace agents, but it makes them more effective”.
The aircraft are always flown IFR. They can fly 20 hours unrefueled, limiting the numbers of takeoffs and landings required. They typically fly at 19,000 to 20,000 feet and operate from military bases. Because they loiter at IFR altitudes, and as they spend very little time at airport environments, Kostelnik said they pose little threat to manned aircraft. He also noted that the agency operates a command center that has all the radar feeds in the United States and Canada. He noted that agents monitor the radars when the Predators are operational. The agency operates 280 aircraft and 200 boats with 75 operations to complete their border patrol mission. That mission is immigration, drug interdiction and other illegal activities. The Assistant Commissioner said that the operations are not “military, but special operations” and that their mission is law enforcement and they must operate as such. In addition to the MQ-9 Predator, the BCP operates Citation Jets and P-3 Orion aircraft. The agency currently has two aircraft in production as maritime aircraft. These aircraft will be outfitted with different radios and some other modifications. They will be stationed at coastal bases and will be used to support the BCP mission. (Portions Copyright © 1999-2009 by Aero-News Network, Inc.)
