The Department of Homeland Security is gearing up to start operating Predator B unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the US-Canadian border. Canada’s The Windsor Star reported Aug. 8 that “within weeks” these unmanned platforms will begin flights out of the Customs and Border Patrol Air and Marine base in Grand Forks, N.D., to surveil sparsely populated regions of the western portion of the US-Canada border. The newspaper cited Michael Kostelnik, assistant commissioner of the Office of Customs and Border Patrol Air and Marine, who spoke on Aug. 8 at a ceremony dedicating a new CBP base on the grounds of Selfridge ANGB, north of Detroit. Eventually the Predator Bs, which the Air Force calls the Reaper, may patrol along more densely populated border areas, such as the Great Lakes region, Kostelnik said, according to the newspaper. Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) is reportedly lobbying for Predator Bs to be based at Selfridge. CBP already operates several Predator Bs along the US-Mexico border.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.