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Putting Border Tech To The Test
by Chris Strohm
After eight months of engineering work, technology integration and big promises, the federal government's new approach for securing the borders is about to undergo its ultimate test.
The first phase of the so-called SBInet program will become operational this week. Agents with the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection will begin using an integrated mix of technology, infrastructure, equipment and processes within a 28-mile stretch of southwest Arizona, dubbed Project 28.
"The switch will be turned on and it will be turned over to CBP and the Border Patrol, who will basically use it and test it for 30 to 45 days before accepting the full solution," Border Patrol spokesman Xavier Rios said. "Once that gets fully signed off on, then CBP and the Border Patrol will take full command of it."
The stakes couldn't be higher. The Homeland Security Department and its SBInet lead contractor, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, are banking on the program to gain operational control of the borders. Boeing was awarded a $20 million contract for Project 28 last October. The government plans to spend about $8 billion through 2013 on SBInet overall, making it one of the department's single-largest acquisition programs.
But criticism will rain down, especially from Congress, if the technology and systems do not work as promised, possibly sinking future appropriations for the program.
"June 13, 2007, marks an important date for the SBInet program and for the Department of Homeland Security as a whole," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said at a hearing last week. "On that date, Project 28 is scheduled to be fully operational, and we will begin to learn whether this $20 million initial investment is going to be a success."
The Lay Of The Land Under SBInet
Project 28 is heavily dependent on technology as opposed to traditional border infrastructure such as fences and vehicle barriers. The Homeland Security Department estimates that the cost of securing each mile of the border with fencing is about $3 million, compared to about $1 million using technology, said Greg Giddens, the department's SBInet program manager.
Border Patrol agents will use a combination of surveillance towers, laptop computers, communications equipment, ground sensors and vehicles as part of Project 28, Jerry McElwee, Boeing's SBInet program manager, said during last week's hearing.
Nine mobile towers with radars, cameras and communications equipment have been strategically placed throughout the 28 miles of desert. Agents can control tower cameras from within their vehicles, giving them the ability to zoom in on suspicious activity.
"That is a significant reduction in risk, we think, for an agent to be able to see with his or her eyes what it is they're going to be encountering when they attempt to make an apprehension," McElwee said.
The vehicles are also equipped with iridium satellite phones to ensure continuous communications. "It was our experience in doing an examination of the southwest desert that there are many locations that the existing communications that the agent has do not work," McElwee added. "The distances are just so vast that it's difficult to cover all of that. The satellite phone will provide that backup capability."
Unattended ground sensors also dot the landscape in certain areas. He said the sensors, cameras and communications equipment all connect to a central command center, providing a common operational picture. Three rapid-response vehicles will be used to transport illegal immigrants from their point of capture to a detention facility.
Sinking In Deepwater?
Many lawmakers remain skeptical that SBInet can succeed. Government investigators also have expressed concern that the program's cost could balloon to $30 billion.
"I predict that we will see an increase in illegal entry for those trying to get into the U.S. before action is taken and the borders are hardened," Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana, the ranking Republican of the Homeland Security Border Subcommittee, said during the hearing. "I raise this issue to express my concern that SBInet runs a risk of becoming a program that starts full of promise but fizzles out because political winds change and resources are diverted."
House appropriators have voted to provide $1 billion for SBInet in the fiscal 2008 security spending bill but to withhold $700 million until the department submits a detailed expenditure plan for the program. Appropriators also want to require individual reports to accompany task orders worth more than $100 million. And they voted to direct $20 million to increase northern border security.
Souder observed that illegal border activities simply will bypass Project 28. He added that the government "cannot have another acquisition program that delivers unreliable equipment and assets like we saw in the [Coast Guard's] Deepwater 110-foot cutter conversion." The Coast Guard initially accepted the refurbished cutters from its contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, but then rejected them due to engineering problems.
The comparison between SBInet and Deepwater, however, has some industry officials up in arms. "There is a fundamental misunderstanding between the type of contract vehicle that the government has used for the SBI program and the type of contracts that they did with Deepwater," said one official who asked to remain anonymous.
The official said the government specifically structured the SBInet contract to be based on task orders, which are incrementally given for work on specific projects with specific timelines and budgets. "It's just not right to put everybody at the same table and paint everybody with this big, broad brush," the official added.
Expansion Plans Before Certification
Giddens said Project 28 also will undergo an evaluation by the Army's communications and electronics command in about a month. "They will come in and conduct another extended test with just the agents and the equipment to ensure that they're performing as expected," he said.
Even though Project 28 has not been certified, however, the Homeland Security Department is already making plans to expand it.
Giddens said the next task orders will expand work throughout the Border Patrol's Tucson and Yuma sectors, which would effectively cover all of the Arizona border. He said those task orders will be awarded in September or October.
He added that the department plans to have 70 surveillance and communications towers deployed by the end of 2008.
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