U.S. Border Patrol Spends $10 Million on Videogame

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.

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.”

While $10 million may seem like a lot of money on a game that is not even for sale to the public, only about $1 million of that money went directly to the Borders HLM project specifically. The rest was spent throughout a number of years, and was used to build fundamental data management systems. The government is likely using the relatively modest amount of money on simulations to avoid having to spend even more on implementation of plans that may not work.

Watch Sandia’s video below.

Published in Notitas de Noticias

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