A second section of the US government’s heavily criticized “virtual fence” is planned on the Arizona-Mexico border and a third could be tested near Detroit by the end of this year, a Boeing Co official said.
A prototype consisting of nine movable towers across a 45km-area southwest of Tucson would be torn down and replaced this summer because it failed to perform as expected.
But Jack Chenevey, program manager for Boeing’s Secure Border Initiative (SBI) project, said on Thursday that the company viewed the results of its US$20 million prototype as a steppingstone success.
“Border Patrol agents use it absolutely 24-7. The reliability and availability of the system has exceeded our expectations for a prototype system,” Chenevey said in a telephone interview.
The project also met all contractual requirements, he said.
The SBI envisions using virtual fencing along portions of both borders. The towers are intended to clamp down on illegal immigration by giving Border Patrol agents video and pinpoint locations of intruders.
Problems in the computer software tying together detections from its series of sensors, radars and cameras into a common picture delayed the prototype fence’s operation for several months. Delays in satellite transmission of data added to its problems.
Boeing was paid US$20 million by the Department of Homeland Security to build the fence last summer. It is north of the border near the port of entry at Sasabe.
Customs and Border Protection officials acknowledged last month that the towers, called Project 28, didn’t work well enough to continue their refinement and said they would be replaced with improved ones.
Boeing expects to start building an additional 48km of new virtual fencing in southern Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument later this year, Chenevey said. The project is also expected to be tested along the Canadian border this year, near Detroit.
Boeing has a US$45 million contract to create new software for the Border Patrol’s needs. The company has been awarded about US$860 million for the entire nationwide SBI effort.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS