Rat in the Hat
Gold Member
- Mar 31, 2010
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Each helicopter has a range > 230 miles. How many do we need?
OK, let's use your range of 230 miles. Assuming the base is at the halfway point of the patrol area, it would have to fly 57.5 miles to start it's patrol leg, 115 miles along the border, than 57.5 back to base to refuel. In order to have more or less continuous coverage you would need at least 3 in the air at any given time. Plus you would need at least 2 spares, one for covering routine maintenance, and one for unexpected downtime. That makes 5 for each segment of the border.
The border is 1969 miles long. That makes for 17 segments, which would mean a total of 85 birds needed to maintain continuous coverage. And that's if you could somehow find a way to keep them in shape to fly 24/7/365 for an extended period of time.
Take away the backups, and you still need 51 birds to cover the entire border. 6 short. The 5 for Mexico in the hands of our border patrol would only leave us 1 short, provided you found a way to keep ours in flight-worthy status at all times.
Good math calcs. However, I think you are forgetting the thousands of IR cameras and sensors that are also already deployed. I do not know the expanse of these, but I believe when used in conjunction with the fleet of helicopters, it should be enough. And if it isn't, pay the Mexicans to build the damn fence that we couldn't!
The cameras and sensors are fine, if there's a helicopter close by to monitor the invaders until the ground forces arrive. If it's 50+ miles away, they'll be gone before the bird gets there.
And I agree with you that we should pay the Mexicans to build the fence for us. Their lower labor rates will get it done cheaper, longer and better than doing it ourselves. We just shouldn't be using our hard earned tax dollars to upgrade their military and police forces, at the expense of ours.