Military UAVs may not suit homeland security.

• Position: Washington PULSE

The military spends billions of dollars a year on unmanned aircraft, which fly over war zones searching for targets and occasionally even firing missiles. The Department of Homeland Security, however, appears uninterested in employing Defense Department UAVs to monitor the nation's borders. As part of a project called the Arizona Border Control Initiative, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency was employing military UAVs to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. That program ended in January 2005, and DHS has not indicated it wants to continue it, says Dyke Weatherington, head of a UAV task force at the office of the secretary of defense. "In the past, DHS has come to the Defense Department and requested support for missions such as UAV operations," he says. The ABCI effort was terminated upon DHS request.

Meantime, Customs and Border...