The U.S. Border Patrol has reportedly spent “in the ballpark of $10 million” on data management and development of a videogame that simulates the job of a border patrol agents. It is estimated that the border simulator ‘game’ compromised $1 million of the total project cost.
New Mexico- and California-based Sandia National Laboratories primarily develops new weaponry and technology for the U.S. government, and the border patrol game “Borders High Level Model (HLM)” is just their latest project. The touchscreen-based simulation game has the user covering 64 square miles of border terrain – in reality the border is nearly 2,000 miles long – and border patrol agents and other customs officials have the chance to play through different scenarios and “see how people, technology, and other elements all interact.”
The majority of the $10 million in funding was spent over a number of years to build fundamental data management systems. In justifying the expense Jason Reinhart, project manager, at the Sandia lab noted “We learned that the border patrol agents and CBP decision-makers need a tool that offers a common view of the problems they face.”
Watch Sandia’s video below.
