Who would have thought of it!
Radars triggering by rain? (we never watch the wheather reports now do we)
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has accepted into service its first section of SBInet virtual border fence, but it clearly isn't very happy with the state of the new technology. DHS chieftain Michael Chertoff reportedly said he was "satisfied for now" with the new kit. Border Patrol Assistant Commissioner Jay …
Thousands of miles of border (lets assume 3).
$30 billion.
That's a million $'s/mile, around $625 per metre.
Employing a low paid ($30k/annum) Mexican immigrant to stand at every 100th metre with a rifle for 30 years would cost half as much, and that's just the installation cost of the towers, running costs, maintenance and all the ancillary equipment (Rangers in their humvee's with the equipment to show the data) will make the 30 year running costs much higher.
"Chertoff said that acceptance of Project 28 did not mean that DHS was willing to be saddled with a hugely expensive white elephant by Boeing."
noooo! of course not! how could such a thing happen? Defence contractors blagging up multi-gazillion dollar projects by assuring paranoid government types that "we have the tech, let us take care of it ...."!?!?
20 years and many, many more gazillions later .... oh, and a few mating rabbits that accidentally triggered a SCUD missile attack ... I can almost read the headlines in advance.
So if the radar cues up the optics, does that mean that once it has been distracted to look one way it is in boresight mode and effectively "blind" to anything else? If so, all the illegals would have to do is get a suitable distraction off to one side and then they could drive a bus past on the other whilst the border cops are zooming in to the COP view and trying to work out if it's another decoy....
Radar capable of "seeing" enemy troops was all the rage a while back, I'm pretty sure Lewis mentioned recently that most militaries dropped it as unreliable and ineffective? I seem to remember our Army only use mortar-locating radar nowadays rather than the old chestpack radars.
Set up some ('some' being much more than several) Bhuddist-style prayer wheel wind-driven corner reflectors - with arms to provide appropriate amounts of Doppler - and the system will be so swamped that you'll actually see the towers fall over.
AC for this one...
So basically it's a subsidy to Boeing, using the towers as an excuse. This is the same country that bitches high and low about other governments subsidising their industries? The US government never ceases to amaze me at the sheer level of hypocrisy it can churn out per month.
When are they putting the wireless lightning gun on these to automatically fire at anything it locates?
If DHS hires enough Mexicans as border guards, there won't be any left to try to sneak in illegally. Of course that would then make their jobs redundant, so they'd get laid off, and try to sneak over the border to find work - as a border guard! (repeat ad infinitum).
However, the calculation is off a bit. You'd need at least three shifts of $30k/year workers for each post.
-Chris
Hmm , I always thought the bigger the fence to keep the unwashed masses and required slaves and serfs out of the country then the the easier it becomes to turn the country into one mass prison camp to prevent the locals from leaving and seeking a better life fleeing from the Union of the Soviet States of Amerika's perverted version of law and order in the land of the delusional paranoid and the imprisoned for life !
Blame those evil but very free fun loving Canadians for this mess !
why not build a f**king real solid fence instead of some fake, virtual "Second Life" crap?! Concrete, razor wire, and solar powered high voltage. Quit screwing around with security-I don't see this "virtual' security crap being used around "important" stuff-banks, Saudi Princes, Hollywood d*ckweeds-they all use real, nasty security-usually backed up by thugs with guns. Crime, slavery, and terrorism are real problems and not some Web 2.0 wankerism! Why do so many of these politicians think a swiss cheese border is a good thing?
Nevermind, it's that Fifth Column. Good job, Soviet Union! Looks like you won the Cold War after all.
Lots of places where the border runs through towns in the East and here in BC there's Avenue 0 which has border markers in the ditch on the south side. Hope they put some up there and we can watch them spin until the heads fall off.
Other thought, how well would these deal with wildlife, wind blown shopping bags or other detritus, moving trees? Would love to see how they "interpret" the COPs that are generated.