Opportunity at the Borders
Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Paul Rothman
“The President's objective cannot be met only with barbed wire,” says Lt. Gen. Robert M. Elton, U.S. Army (Ret.), chairman of Distributed Instruments. “Precision sensor technology is the most practical, cost-effective and politically acceptable solution.”
DHS is clearly hoping to capitalize on tactics and technologies that defense officials adopted in U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. One key element in the agency's plans appears to be the Predator B, a robotic surveillance plane made in San Diego by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
In a $14.1 million contract awarded last September, DHS acquired its first Predator B to fly surveillance missions along the border with Mexico. The plane — which carried surveillance equipment capable of seeing through the clouds to the ground at 50,000 feet — crashed in Arizona on April 25, about 10 miles north of Nogales.
Friel says operators lost contact with the drone as it patrolled the border at around 15,000 feet. Efforts to re-establish contact were unsuccessful, and now DHS is working to acquire another plane. Bush's cadre of National Guard troops did not bring any unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with them to the border, but the Border Patrol is reportedly set to acquire another UAV for $6.5 million this summer.
Skepticism still abounds
Many defense contractors and government security industry veterans may be having a minor case of deja-vu when it comes to SBInet. After all, the industry has had big technology-purchasing expectations in the past.
“They thought after the Sept. 11 attacks that Homeland security was going to be a gold mine,” Frost and Sullivan's Farr says. He adds that many companies made big commitments to develop technologies for an Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System (ISIS) under a program called America's Shield Initiative, announced by DHS in 2004.
Inadequate funding and a series of procurement missteps forced DHS to kill the program, Farr says.
“I'm extremely skeptical — but not because the security industry cannot accomplish the task,” Farr says. “Look at the [DHS] track record. ISIS failed miserably because it is so difficult to achieve — they didn't realize how difficult it would be to put sensors and cameras in the middle of nowhere.”
ISIS failed technologically because, according to testimony by DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner, the components were not “integrated to the level predicted at the program's onset.” Remote cameras and sensors were not linked — whereby an underground sensor alert automatically activates a corresponding camera in the direction of the triggered sensor.
On a governmental level, ISIS experienced “significant delays and cost overruns in the procurement of the remote video surveillance system,” Skinner said. In other words, it cost far more to purchase and install the video systems than the government anticipated.
Will that happen again?
“Two billion dollars might be shortchanging the system,” Farr says. “There are 6,900 miles along the northern and southern border that could be either a desert or freezing. Two billion might be wishful thinking for 7,000 miles of harsh terrain.
“But this industry will figure it out,” Farr adds. “It will just be a rocky process.”
Story Quick Links
- Bush's SBI Plan at a Glance
- Border Security by the Numbers
- Contractors in the Running
- Citizens on Patrol the Texas technology plan
- Barriers On the Fence
- Protecting our Borders A Resource Guide
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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.
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