Old Army Tech Gets New Life, on the Border

The Department of Homeland Security may be getting ready to spend nearly $8 billion on a high-tech defense of the southern border. But that gear won't be ready until 2011, at least. In the meantime, the Border Patrol blowing the dust off of old gadgetry, sitting in military warehouses, and putting the equipment to work.

"Hundreds of obsolete Javelin missile weapon sights... have been given new life with the U.S. Border Patrol," National Defense magazine reports.

The
Javelin is an anti-tank missile that is used by the Army and Marine
Corps and produced in a joint venture by Raytheon Corp. and Lockheed
Martin Corp.

Agent Jim Hawkins, a spokesman for the
Tucson sector, said the Border Patrol received a call last year from
Raytheon executives who are based at the company’s missile systems division in Tucson, Ariz.

They asked if the agency would be interested in putting the missile’s night vision sights to use protecting the southern border.

The
Army had several hundred units from an early version of the missile that were deemed obsolete. They couldn’t be exported and were considered white elephants.

After hearing what the company had to offer, the answer was an unequivocal “yes,” Hawkins said.

“It was a tremendous deal for us. We’re basically getting a top notch night sight for a mere pittance,” Hawkins said.

The Border Patrol only has to supply the batteries.