Exploration of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles along with other assets to enhance border protection

Abstract

Border protection is a vital national security issue for most countries. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is responsible for protecting the borders of the U.S. from terrorism, human and drug smuggling and illegal migration. The U.S. CBP improves manpower, technology and infrastructure along the border through various projects. In this study, part of the Tucson sector in Arizona is modeled in an agent-based model (MANA) to explore the effects of using a hand-launched, mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (miniUAV) along with other assets, such as Border Patrol (BP) agents, surveillance towers, the Predator B, seismic sensors and communication centers. The results from the runs of different scenarios, created by a Nearly-Orthogonal Latin Hypercube (NOLH) design, are analyzed using comparison tests, linear regression, and regression trees. As a result, the use of miniUAVs is found to be beneficial in capturing the illegal entrants in this analysis and thus could potentially provide more secure borders. Adequate manpower, in this case BP agents, and a reliable communication web to compose a Common Operational Picture (COP) emerge as the most important factors regarding border protection in this analysis.