U.S. Border Patrol Tunnel-Spotter to Prowl Southwest
Many may not think about it, but somewhere, right now, a person is tunneling toward Los Estados Unidos. Drug tunnels to the United States are regular fodder for border newspapers when they’re found, and today ScienceDaily details a tunnel’s newest enemy from the Department of Homeland Security.
“The new design technology is to place the radar antennas in a trailer that will be towed by a Border Patrol truck. The antennas shoot a signal directly into the ground and use it to construct a multi-colored picture of the earth. Tunnels show up as red, yellow, and aquamarine dots against a blue background. Border patrols agents would see these images on a monitor mounted inside their truck.”
That’s right, trailer-based ground radar.
“The Lockheed Martin team showed off an early scale model prototype this spring, mimicking the Southern U.S. border with large box filled with sand and rocks, and using pipes as tunnels… Next, they will send the technology to the Southwest this summer, where it will be tested against the rigors of the real life border. Separating tunnels from rocks, plants, and other objects along the ground or buried shallowly will be a key test.”
Now they just need to make one big enough for a 2,000 mile-wide border. Easy.
