Angry yet? Congress spends $32M for 3 spy drones DHS doesn't want and can't fly

[UnrepentantLiberal]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/dhs-unwanted-drones/

DHS Doesn’t Want Its New Spy Drones

By Katie Drummond
Wired
November 1, 2011

It was a really thoughtful gesture, but officials with the Department of Homeland Security kinda wish Congress had held onto the gift receipt for those spy drones.

In a gift-giving mix-up that outdoes any of your worst Christmas sweater stories, Congress this past August approved a very generous $32 million appropriation to the DHS for the acquisition of three new Predator drones, meant to bolster the Department’s border-monitoring efforts.

Department officials were surprised, to say the least. See, new Predators weren’t exactly on their surveillance gear wish list.

“We didn’t ask for them,” an unnamed official told the Los Angeles Times.

DHS is already struggling to operate their seven existing drones. Officials acknowledge that they are short on pilots and maintenance — right now, they can only pay to fly the drones five days a week. So now DHS is in a mad scramble trying to figure out how they can successfully incorporate three more vehicles into the roster.

That means more than just pilots: Each drone also requires a maintenance crew, intelligence analysts and pricey satellite bandwidth.

[leveymg]

1. This is nothing but welfare for General Atomics & defense contractors, and a ripoff of the taxpayers

$10 million plus each for RC model airplanes. Border Patrol could make do with $5,000 worth of components bought off-the-shelf at a local hobby shop, but won't because General Atomics has Congress and DHS in its pocket. Disgusting.

[DirkGently]

3. Can we start calling them Warfare Queens? Lazily squeezing out more useless hardware ?

[redqueen]

2. Heads need to roll for this.

:grr:

[UnrepentantLiberal]

4. But "entitlements" need to be on the table.

Sickening. I honestly don't think this country can be fixed.