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.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…