On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 13:07:53 -0800, Richard Riley
wrote in
::

The SAR is useful becase it has a larger field of view. If a TV or IR
sensor is zoomed in far enough to see a person on the ground, it's
field of view is tiny - you'll miss the group that's walking 100 yards
away from him. It's kind of like looking through a soda straw.
That's why SAR was in the spec.

Of course, if the altitude is lower, that's a non issue.

You need a dash speed. There's a LOT of border to cover.

In the case of this TFR, it's abut 120 miles.

You need to be able to get 50 miles away in a pretty short period.

Why is that a necessity?

The loiter time is important. The southern border is long, and the
area they're working with this is uninhabited.

In the case of this TFR, it's abut 120 miles.

So you want the vehicle to be able to go there from your base, loiter
all night, and then come home. If you have to refuel at midnight
you're going to loose half your patrol time.

You could use two C-182s, so that there would always be one over the
boarder, with considerably less expense than one UAV, and it would
require no TFR.

The laser illuminator is important, so you can point at runners and
agents on the ground can see it with their NVG's.

Is there something that precludes a C-182 from being quipped with a
laser illuminator?