Hope they can "see and avoid" by remote control

[mikea]

Are we really going to have pilotless drones flying routinely over US airspace?

The 12 Predators, similar to the one that helped track down Saddam Hussein in 2003, will be based at Ellington as part of the Texas Air National Guard's 147th Fighter Wing, Gov. Rick Perry announced.

Perry and U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said the Predators will play a crucial role in guarding this region's vast petrochemical complex, as well as showing the importance of Ellington and its F-16s. The Department of Defense has recommended retiring the fighter jets.

The pilotless planes also will be used to conduct anti-terrorism missions abroad and to detect illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico, Perry said.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3315624

I guess they would use the same radar and TCAS systems that the F-16s use to see US, but man, can we count on that? Are they going to be flying at 30,000 feet where we aren't?

 

[glpilot]

I hear they are doing their work around the mexican border issues lately as well. We might be seeing more and more of these things in our airspace.