Quote Originally Posted by bourbon View Post
Ultralight aircraft are used on the US-Mexico border to smuggle drugs.....
Feds Drop $100 Million to Spot Flying, Homebrew Cocaine Mules, by Robert Beckhusen. Wired Danger Room, August 20, 2012.
That’s why the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is spending $100 million on new sensors that can detect ultralight aircraft. The giant contract — awarded to New York defense company SRCTec earlier this month — comes as the cartels have been using more of the planes to elude Border Patrol agents. The cartels also seem to have become pretty good at it. The Air Force has chased them with jets, and the Border Patrol has pursued them with Black Hawk helicopters.

Closer to gliders than complete planes; ultralight planes are small, cheap and their engines are relatively quiet. They move slowly, but are flown low to blend in with the southwest border’s rugged and hilly terrain, which the smugglers use to hide from radar. The last available data on ultralight incursions is from 2011, when the CBP detected 223 flights, double from two years prior. It stands to reason the real number is much higher, owing to the diminutive aircraft’s sneakiness.
You could outfit some CBP trucks with DshKs for a fraction of that $100 million.