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Shop NowQuietly, the Pentagon has started border surveillance using high tech military spy planes. They appear to be targeting the Mexican cartels. Flight trackers noticed a “significant” increase in recent overflights. Pundits say “the activity highlights how the military has already begun shifting finite U.S. national security capabilities away from overseas threats.”
Border a security emergency
President Donald Trump’s clear focus is on the southern border, where he already declared a national emergency.
During a “10-day period in late January and early February,” sophisticated spy planes were spotted “flying at least 18 missions over the southwestern U.S. and in international airspace around the Baja peninsula.”
Democrats at CNN went running to their favorite “current and former military officials” for guidance. They confirmed that it represents “a dramatic escalation in activity.”
They also mentioned that there’s not a thing Democrats can do about it. President Trump has already directed the Pentagon “to secure the border and deter cartels’ drug smuggling operations.”
It’s normal for the military to fly “about one surveillance mission a month around the U.S.-Mexico border.”
They weren’t really looking for much, only getting estimates of how many migrants to expect in the shelters. They didn’t need the kind of planes Trump’s been using since sworn in.
A shift in priority
“Typically, officials instead focus these planes on collecting intelligence on other priorities,” the experts noted. Things like “Russian activity in Ukraine or hunting Russian or Chinese submarines.”
They pointed out that at least 11 missions along the border were flown by Navy P-8s. Those, they declare are “a particularly prized plane with a sophisticated radar system.”
Along with the fancy radar are equally fancy cameras. More important is their capability to collect “signals intelligence.” That means tracking cell phones. One of the unusual flights was on February 3.
For nearly six hours, a U-2 spy plane flew around taking high resolution snapshots. That’s a first. “Current and former military officials with deep experience in counter-narcotics work on the border said they could not recall a U-2 being used for this purpose before.”
The most interesting track to nervous Democrats was a “longer mission that looped around the Baja peninsula and passed near Sinaloa on February 4.” It’s noteworthy because “That plane, an Air Force RC-135 ‘Rivet,‘ specializes in hoovering up communications from the ground.” That should make the cartels nervous.
“These aircraft are capable of collecting intelligence deep within Mexico.” Things are clearly heating up along the border. “Trump has threatened to drop bombs on fentanyl labs and send special forces to take out cartel leaders.” He might just do it.
