Vader, of course, is the sophisticated airborne radar system developed to track the Taliban in Afghanistan and now used along the US border with Mexico.
Vader, which stands for Vehicle Dismount and Exploitation Radar (what? What did you think it was named after?), recently showed that US Border Patrol agents caught fewer than half of people sneaking into the United States illegally:
According to internal reports, Border Patrol agents used the airborne radar to help find and detain 1,874 people in the Sonora Desert between Oct. 1 and Jan. 17. But the radar system spotted an additional 1,962 people in the same area who evaded arrest and disappeared into the United States. [...]
The radar is sharp enough to detect and track individuals on foot from a Predator five miles overhead. It uses a synthetic aperture radar to collect high-contrast black-and-white images and to follow scores of moving targets in real time. The processed signals are transmitted from the drone to a ground station, where the figures are displayed as moving dots on a detailed map.
"It's a match made in heaven for border security," said a former U.S. law enforcement official.
He said the radar had helped Border Patrol agents watch migrants and smugglers gathering on the Mexican side of the border before they start trekking north. But not all of the agents are happy to get a precise head count for the first time of how many people they are missing.
"The rank-and-file guys are afraid it will make them look bad," the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the program are not public.
Force choking would probably improve morale! Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times reports: Link
Comments (1)
*slow clap*
Screw all of that pretentious bullpuckery. I'll eat spaghetti with my hands if I want to and you can gasp and frown all you like while pointing at the rulebook and being a so-called expert because your friends agree you are. I honestly don't care.