The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk may get a chance next year to vie for a major role in the US government’s fight against Latin American drug smugglers.
The Miami-based US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees the US military’s counter-drug operations in the region, wants to schedule a demonstration in early fiscal year 2006, but the RQ-4 already has support. “The Global Hawk would be really nice,” says US Air Force Maj Gen Richard Mentemeyer, SOUTHCOM deputy commander.
US military and law enforcement agencies estimate they intercept only a fraction of the illegal drug shipments crossing the US border. To put the drug traffickers out of business, a SOUTHCOM analysis says the USA would need to stop at least 50% of the smuggling attempts each year, Mentemeyer told Shephard’s Unmanned Vehicles North America conference in Miami.
That would require establishing an almost permanent ring of early-warning sensors stretching from the eastern Pacific Ocean to the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea.
SOUTHCOM’s main problem is a lack of surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance assets. Inter-agency surveillance aircraft are based at three “co-operative security locations” in Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador, but have limited range and endurance. Also, the smugglers constantly adapt by shifting their routes.
“If I had Global Hawk in my area of responsibility, I would not have this limitation at all,” says Mentemeyer. “I could be ready for them when they move east or west because I know that’s what they’re going to do.”
STEPHEN TRIMBLE/MIAMI
Source: Flight International