Domenici Asks Ridge To Tour Las Cruces As Potential Home ForHomeland Security Aircraft Program

December 4, 2003
Press Release
 
Domenici Asks Ridge To Tour Las Cruces As Potential Home For Homeland Security 
Aircraft Program 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Pete Domenici today invited Homeland Security 
Secretary Tom Ridge to visit the Las Cruces International Airport, a facility 
the veteran New Mexico lawmaker is promoting as a prime location from which to 
base an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) test center.

Domenici, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, 
issued the invitation as Ridge considers potential sites for the UAV program.  
The Las Cruces airport and Fort Huachuca in Arizona have interest in hosting 
the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) planned UAV mission to improve 
surveillance on the Southwest Border.

“I am convinced that the assets we have in place at the Las Cruces airport 
make it an ideal site for this project, and I want Secretary Ridge to be aware 
of these assets before any decision is made,” Domenici said.  “Visiting the 
airport would also give the Secretary a good opportunity to visit the New 
Mexico ports of entry to see how security enhancements are working on the 
border.”

Last January, Domenici initiated efforts to convince Ridge to use the Las 
Cruces airport that now serves as headquarters for New Mexico’s UAV Center of 
Excellence.  The airport also operates a Defense Department-sponsored UAV 
validation center.

“This robust program and its ever-improving facilities would provide an 
excellent location for the DHS testing center.  As such, I would like to extend 
an invitation to you to come to Las Cruces to assess what New Mexico has to 
offer to this important border security program.  I believe you will be very 
impressed,” Domenici said in his letter of invitation to Ridge.

Sponsored by the Defense Department, the UAV Center of Excellence is a joint 
regional UAV Systems and Operations Validation Facility (USOVF) created through 
a partnership between the 46th Test Group at Holloman Air Force Base and the 
Physical Sciences Laboratory at New Mexico State University.

This facility provides a platform for the validation of UAV operations and 
performance in civil airspace, as well as tests of key UAV enabling 
technologies, such as see-and-avoid systems that allow the safe operation of 
UAV=s in the same airspace as manned aircraft.  The USOVF is pre-approved by 
the Federal Aviation Administration for file and fly in a regional flight area 
of 300,000 square miles in the western United States.

Domenici this year gained $4.9 million in 2004 defense funding to continue 
development of the USOVF, which provides the Defense Department UAV operations 
capability to support testing of UAV platforms and systems in civil airspace.

Within the FY2004 consolidated omnibus appropriations package pending in 
Congress, Domenici has also secured $1.1 million in FAA funding to build a new 
air traffic control tower at the Las Cruces airport.  The new tower would 
support greater UAV operations in the area.

 

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