Thread: Air Force won’t ground border security blimps after sequestration threat

Mar 5, 2013, 4:17pm MST

Air Force won’t ground border security blimps after sequestration threat

Mike Sunnucks
Senior Reporter- Phoenix Business Journal

The U.S. Air Force will not ground high-tech security blimps used along the U.S.-Mexico border to detect drug smugglers trying to the enter the U.S. via the ground or light aircraft.

The blimp program — which is based out of Fort Huachuca and Yuma as well as New Mexico and Texas — was scheduled to be grounded by the U.S. government due to the $85 billion in automatic sequestration cuts.

But U.S. Reps. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., Trent Franks, R-Ariz., as well as other members from border states lobbied the Pentagon and U.S. Homeland Security Department to keep the surveillance blimps aloft.

The Air Force agreed to keep the blimps in the sky until September and then will transfer the program over to DHS.

“These systems help to secure our border by detecting ultralights and other low-flying aircraft illegally entering our country carrying drugs,” Barber said in a statement.

The Tucson Democrat said the blimps help border and national security and their grounding would have created a “gaping hole” along the border.

They have also been used in Florida and Puerto Rico to detect drug smuggling.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/n...-security.html