The U.S. military is sending approximately 40 Air Force intelligence analysts to beef up its surveillance of the southern border, U.S. Northern Command announced March 11.
Those Airmen, along with approximately 590 engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Army 18th Airborne Corps, will bring the total number of troops deployed for the border mission to 9,600.
The Trump administration has made securing the border a high-priority military mission, and the Air Force, Navy, and other U.S. government assets have been conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico since at least early February.
Those operations are being carried out by U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft based in the continental United States.
“We are America’s eyes in the skies watching our southern border to protect the homeland in support of [U.S. Northern Command] and our interagency partners within [the Department of Homeland Security] and [Customs and Border Protection],” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin posted on the social media site X on March 12 to acknowledge the latest deployment. “Our ISR pros never blink!”
NORTHCOM has established the Joint Intelligence Task Force-Southern Border to oversee the joint service effort. Its intelligence analysts work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. There have previously been at least 140 U.S. military intelligence personnel from multiple services assigned to the command as part of the southern border mission.
“These intelligence personnel will provide full motion video analysis, counter network analysis, and Spanish language translation to the U.S. Border Patrol Office of Intelligence,” NORTHCOM stated on Feb. 4.
Allvin said in a Feb. 27 interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine that Airmen “have been doing everything asked for them, most recently, in support of southwest border and the president’s priority of restoring sovereignty and protecting protecting our borders—absolutely part and parcel of that, from the the rapid global mobility to be able to transport the the illegal aliens to their destination, to surveillance and reconnaissance support, to anything that’s being asked of us.”
Some of the approximately 40 new Airmen assigned to the mission will serve at the headquarters of Joint Intelligence Task Force-Southern Border, which is located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., a defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Other locations where the intelligence analysts are expected to serve include Joint Reserve Intelligence Centers, which are located in San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Jacksonville, Fla., the official said.
U.S. Air Force RC-135 intelligence-gathering flights have taken place along the border and off the coast of Mexico throughout February and March, according to U.S. officials and flight tracking data.
Navy P-8 flights have been particularly common, and at least one Navy P-8 near the border is equipped with the advanced AN/APS-154 Advanced Airborne Sensor radar—a long pod visible on the centerline under the aircraft. That P-8 was based in Europe but was recently moved to Texas. As of March 12, it was located at Fort Carswell at Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, open-source flight tracking data shows.
U.S. military officials have said other airborne intelligence gathering assets are also being used to provide data, which must then be analyzed and coordinated within the U.S. government.
In addition to intelligence operations, Air Force C-17s and C-130s have been used to deport detainees from the U.S.
“While I cannot get into specifics regarding each Airman, I can confirm that intelligence analysts supporting Joint Intelligence Task Force-Southern Border will be located both throughout the southern border area at various intelligence centers in the continental United States,” a NORTHCOM spokesperson said.
