Put the New Spy Plane to Good Use

It was recently announced that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has received one of the most sophisticated high-tech aircraft in the world, which will be used to detect and track boat smugglers in the Florida area. So far only two planes have this James Bond-like technology developed by the Department of Defense—and the other remains with the military. Integrating telescopic video cameras, infrared technology, radar, and computer systems, this system is said to be so powerful and exact that the pilot can see the smile on a smuggler’s face from 10,000 feet, or a seagull floating on the ocean.

While it’s great that the homeland is becoming more secure against the smuggling of drugs and illegal aliens, I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before the Coast Guard receives the same technology for search-and-rescue operations. Although modern technology has made available the highly efficient satellite-based EPIRB (emergency position-indicating rescue beacon) system that any sailor can use offshore to summon help, once a boat has gone down the Coast Guard still has to search often hundreds of square miles of ocean for a tiny life raft or person in the water. When you read those rescue stories about pilots and crew peering out rain-splattered windows hoping to catch sight of something or someone floating on the ocean below, you realize that so far, EPIRB technology has only gotten the searchers closer to their target but that better visual sighting ability is still needed.

This new spy plane technology seems to hold the promise for a epic leap forward in search and rescue. The Coast Guard is doing a terrific job finding and saving several thousand boaters every year, but nonetheless a few hundred still die annually. Hopefully Congress will extend the budget needed to help us all be a little safer out there on the water.