(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to include new information from CBP with exact locations for the aerostats along the Southwest border.)
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas (Border Report) — The surveillance blimps that fly high over the U.S.-Meixco border could be getting upgraded models, a border lawmaker told Border Report on Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, says the aerostat program could be acquiring up to a dozen newer model surveillance blimp systems that could be used along the entire Southwest border.
“The Department of Defense has some newer aerostats that they’re willing to transfer,” Cuellar told Border Report on Tuesday.
The military used all of the aerostats that are currently up during the war in Afghanistan, but there are newer units that the agency can share with the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Border Patrol, he says.
Negotiations between the Pentagon and DHS have just begun and it’s unclear whether DHS will be asked for payment or has the funds for Fiscal Year 2025, since the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee has already voted on spending for the agency for the upcoming fiscal year.
Cuellar is a senior member of the subcommittee. He has supported the aerostat program for years but acknowledges they are costly and the devices cannot fly in bad weather.
The monthly operational cost for one unit can cost $400,000.
“I’m a big believer of aerostats, because, you know, you can cover, you know, depending on the equipment, radar can cover 75 miles. Cameras can cover 25 miles. So depending on the equipment you have there, they can be very effective. ‘Problem is that they are subject to weather,” Cuellar said.
High winds downed an aerostat earlier this year in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Cuellar says DHS has opted not to fix that unit because repair costs are estimated at $400,000.
Instead, the agency is adding more cameras and mobile surveillance devices in the region.
It’s a move, Cuellar said, that the agency has been leaning toward along the entire Southwest border because the cameras are much less expensive to operate.
“They’re looking for other things right now to use — the towers and other technology,” he said.
“CBP deploys technology on the ground, in the air, in the sea, at ports, and between ports of entry to assist our frontline officers and agents in carrying out their priority border security mission. This includes numerous aerostats that enhance domain awareness of threat approaches by air, land, and sea,” a CBP spokesperson on Wednesday told Border Report.
On the Southwest border, there are a total of nine aerostats and no immediate plans to decommission any of them, the agency says.
In Fiscal Year 2024, over $76 million was spent on the aerostats.
That included $14.5 million for four Tactical Aerostat Systems (TAS), that are all located over the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and operated by Border Patrol in these cities:
- Rio Grande City
- Peñitas
- Sullivan City
- Roma
The agency has appropriated $41.2 million for CBP’s Air and Marine Operations Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) this fiscal year. There are currently five TARS units along the Southwest border located in:
- Rio Grande City
- Yuma, Arizona
- Fort Huachuca, Arizona
- Deming, New Mexico
- Marfa, Texas
An aerostat will also be added near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, an area where there has been an increase in migrant deaths.
AMO also runs a maritime aerostat program, which includes one device over the Gulf of Mexico off the South Texas border, Cuellar says. That program was appropriated $21 million in Fiscal Year 2024.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
