High Tech And Off The Wall

(click images for whole enchilada)

No Administration defense plan would be complete without a way of shifting large chunks of taxpayer cash to the military-industrial complex.

When it comes to immigration, the National Guard is simply a warm-up act.  Forget the walls and the fences.  Bush’s so-called “Secure Border Initiative” intends to contract for a whole new generation of high-tech border surveillance.

According to yesterday’s NYT story, $100 million is now available for the program.  And even if most of the $425 million spend over the past ten years on border technology paid for gear that either wasn’t implemented properly or didn’t work, why should that stop anybody?

This time around, companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop are proposing various airborne surveillance systems.  One device getting attention is Lockheed’s Tethered Aerostat Radar System.  This device — which is twice the size of a Goodyear Blimp — hangs radar from an anchored balloon.  (Just don’t try and operate it in high wind.)

If this technology really does take hold, The BAG could imagine any number of ways it might become part of the social and political landscape.

(Bear with me, it’s Friday.)

(images: fas.org; spot.colorado.edu; geomar.de: spyflight.co.uk; casca.ca)