Source: Jornal do Brasil - RJ - 29/07/2009

It is welcome to incorporate the unmanned aerial vehicle - named Vant - into the arsenal of the Federal Police to be used in border regions. Equipped with radars with high-precision photo and video cameras that can be used at any time of day, the new aircraft, made in Israel, made its inaugural flight in Brazilian sky on Monday, in a ceremony attended by the Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, and national security officials. Although expensive (the government will spend R $ 114 million to implement the first phase of the project, which will have 14 aircraft), the technology has already proved to be an excellent ally in fighting crime in several countries, and tends to dilute its cost in view of the benefits it brings with it.

The new PF weapon is imperceptible to the naked eye, flies for 37 hours, 10 kilometers high, and can follow the target in real time, live and in color. The Vant's experimental flight took place at the project's first base of operations, in São Miguel do Iguaçu, Paraná. There, government officials were able to follow clear images of moving targets, transmitted via satellite. The base location was not chosen for nothing. This is the triple border between Brazil – Paraguay – Argentina, where millions of people travel annually and an equally enormous amount of contraband.

As revealed by a survey by the Federal Police itself, between July and September last year, only from Paraguay, the equivalent of R $ 9 million in cigarettes smuggled across the border of almost a thousand kilometers arrived in the country. According to the Brazilian Association to Combat Piracy, there are already 50 cigarette factories in Paraguay, producing 47 billion units per year.

The piracy of the tobacco industry, however, is only one of the problems in that region, along with drug and arms trafficking. The triple border is an area under permanent international suspicion also due to the spread of terrorism in the world. Agencies in countries like the United States and Israel - the biggest targets of these groups - send out reports on the movement of terrorists or financial transactions between organizations and ask for Brazilian collaboration to locate them. To date, there are no proven cases, but surveillance is never too much.

By the end of the year, four bases will be installed, one of them in Brasília, which will also house a training center for system operators. The other three will be running at full steam until March next year in Manaus, Porto Velho and Foz do Iguaçu. But the Federal Police promises to extend aerial surveillance to the entire national territory. The resources for the first phase are already secured in the budget of the National Citizenship Security Program (Pronasci).

It is noteworthy that the PF will be the first police in the world to use unmanned planes, even ahead of the Armed Forces, which also want the technology, but for now only evaluate the proposals. Federal law enforcement officials tested it 12 days ago and have already made sure of the system's effectiveness. With the new tool, the rational and proactive use of technology at the service of the citizen is expected.