Borderline Network
SECURE BORDER INITIATIVE TECHNOLOGY CONTRACT
WILL CREATE A COMPREHENSIVE, INTEROPERABLE SYSTEM
FOR MONITORING AND CONTROLLING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.
Five companies—four with long records as defense integrators and one that emphasizes its commercial communications experience—have entered the competition to provide information, surveillance and networking technology for the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Border Initiative (SBI).
In late May, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NGC, Raytheon and telecommunications provider Ericsson submitted responses to become the integrator for a key technology component, known as SBInet, of the overall program aimed at improving border enforcement and curbing the flow of illegal immigration.
To achieve that goal, DHS is aiming to increase its ability to detect and detain any people who attempt to cross the border illegally. The department would funnel those individuals into the official points of entry (POEs), where they can be processed as required, according to the solicitation for SBInet.
That requires a prime contractor that can support four key elements of controlling the border: detecting illegal border crossings, identifying the nature of such crossings, classifying the level of threat from each crossing, and responding to the crossing in a way that resolves illegal action by applicable law.
“The [Customs and Border Protection] SBInet component of SBI applies that comprehensive approach to securing the land borders at and between the POEs,” the SBInet solicitation reads. “The initial focus of SBInet will be between the POEs. Further, there is a requirement to build a common operating picture of the border environment, within a command center environment, which will provide commonality within DHS components, and interoperability with stakeholders who are external to DHS.”
“SBInet is the most comprehensive effort in the nation’s history to gain control of its nearly 6,000 miles of international land border,” it adds.
To establish control of the vast stretches of border, the five companies eligible to bid on the contract have said they will use integrated sensors, many of which were first developed for military use, powerful communications and other specialized elements to bring advanced surveillance capabilities to bear on the problems presented by illegal border crossings.
Several of the companies have indicated that technologies such as UAVs would become an integral part of SBInet. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which will run SBInet, has contracted with General Atomics Aeronautic Systems to use its Predator B UAV along U.S. borders. The Predator B would carry sensors and systems developed by the SBInet prime contractor to monitor the borders.
The successful SBInet bidder also must integrate existing DHS programs where applicable. Many defense firms also are involved in or bidding on these programs, which include the Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) for wireless technology; EAGLE and First Source for information technology products and services; OneNet for combining DHS sensitive networks; and SAFECOM for interoperable communications.
“The deployment and/or capability of IWN may not be synchronized or sufficient to support SBInet,” the SBInet solicitation warns. Two SBInet competitors, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, also have been among the competitors for the IWN contract award. (See MIT, Volume 10, Issue 3, page 8.)
The companies competing for the SBInet contract anticipate its award before the end of fiscal 2006 in September.
PERSISTENT SURVEILLANCE
Gene Blackwell, Raytheon vice president of the rapid initiatives group, pointed to several successful contracts maintained by his company as evidence that a defense firm has successfully made the transition to also serving as a homeland security firm.
Raytheon’s experiences in the U.S. Army’s Persistent Surveillance and Dissemination System of Systems (PSPD2), along with a Brazilian program titled the System for Vigilance of the Amazon (SIVAM) and an airport security effort known as the Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS), provide his company with the knowledge and experience to successfully complete SBInet, he said.
“A sensor doesn’t know if its user is military or civilian,” Blackwell said of applying Raytheon’s military experience to domestic problems. “There are a lot of technologies in terms of sensors and other solutions that have applicability to CBP just as they have applicability to military operations.
“Raytheon has fused together a diverse set of sensors that are being used in military applications in a program called PSPD2. That takes these spare sensors that we have—cameras, acoustic sensors, elevated sensors of different kinds, UAVs and so on—and integrates them into a common operating picture. That kind of an approach with the military application may well make sense for Border Patrol,” he said.
For Brazil, Raytheon established SIVAM, a large border and infrastructure security program encompassing the Amazon region. Integrated sensors provided and maintained under a Raytheon contract keep watch over 2.3 million square miles, Blackwell estimated.
In addition, the company’s PIDS program makes use of sensors to keep watch over four U.S. airports: John F. Kennedy International (New York), Newark Liberty International (New Jersey), LaGuardia (New York) and Teterboro (New Jersey).
This diverse range of experiences also provides Raytheon with insight on how to handle the differences in solutions required for individual sectors guarded by U.S. Border Patrol, as the terrain and other challenges in each sector varies quite a bit, company officials contend. The Border Patrol divides border areas into 20 sectors that form a grid designed to help manage security responsibilities.
“You don’t want a boilerplate solution. It’s really about a partnership,” Blackwell explained. “If you have 12,000 Border Patrol agents, that has one solution set in terms of a balance of infrastructure and technology. If you have 18,000 Border Patrol agents, you rebalance that a little bit in terms of technology and infrastructure.
“How you do all of that is really about a partnership with CBP, so you have a common understanding of capabilities. Once you understand those capabilities, it’s about how you apply them. There are 20 sectors and some 150 stations that encompass Border Patrol. One sector’s solution—based on terrain, intrusions, likely areas of entry and so on—may have a different solution set in terms of how you balance that than you have with another sector,” he added.
Raytheon also is prepared to factor the National Guard into its preparations. President Bush announced May 15 that he would deploy up to 6,000 guardsmen along the National Border to support Border Patrol operations as an interim measure designed to help border control.
“My understanding of information from the president and Secretary [of Homeland Security Michael] Chertoff is that the National Guard will be in a support and training role, and not directly involved in apprehension or the other roles of Border Patrol,” Blackwell noted.
“The allocation of the National Guard is a decision made by our national leadership. I don’t see that it would change how we see the solution-set in terms of the offerings that we have. That really becomes sectorspecific again. If you put 6,000 people in the Tucson sector, then you have a different balance of infrastructure and technology. I think it’s a matter of rebalancing technology and infrastructure. Beyond that, I don’t see any significant change to the proposal that we have put together,” he said.
PROGRAM PORTFOLIO
Jay Dragone, vice president of integrated border security solutions for Lockheed Martin, noted that Lockheed Martin has become the world’s largest defense contractor by excelling at projects outside the range of its traditional military aerospacework.
“Fortunately and unfortunately, people first think of Lockheed as an airplane builder,” Dragone said. “But we serve customers in all branches of the U.S. government. We are probably the nation’s largest IT provider. We have gotten involved in a variety of programs that are not just the traditional state-of-the-art technology where we are pushing the envelope in providing capability, but we have also done an excellent job of taking programs and systems that our customers have and getting more capability out of them.”
Lockheed Martin has been involved in a range of programs that has proven its capabilities to handle key parts of SBInet, Dragone said. The company is a leading integrator in the Coast Guard’s Integrated Deepwater System, which is modernizing everything from Coast Guard communications to the service’s ships and helicopters. It also is supporting the Customs Modernization Program for CBP and a biometrics program for the FBI involving the collection and evaluation of fingerprint information.
“We’ve got experience in programs ranging from border security, biometrics and transportation security programs,” Dragone said. “We have programs where we have built and provided critical infrastructure protection, and we have provided capabilities to emergency response and management, including working with law enforcement agencies around the country and around the world. We have a host of programs that make up that portfolio. We have excellent credentials and past performance that we can leverage to bring the SBInet customer a really sound and cost-effective solution.”
Dragone added that his company has a successful history of transferring data to where it needs to be, as it has done for warfighters, providing enhanced situational awareness through the formation of a common operating picture that integrates information from the specific areas required.
“Customs and Border Protection is not the military, but there could be opportunities for dual-use technologies that come from the military to help out with the mission,” Dragone said. “When you take a look at unmanned vehicles for example, we at Lockheed Martin build the tethered aerostats. Those are the tethered balloons. They are being used along the southern border. They are at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. They serve dual purposes. They are at a military facility but they help with surveillance of the border.”
The Global Hawk UAV is used by the Air Force for its Force Protection Airborne Surveillance System (FPASS). As the SBInet integrator, Lockheed Martin would evaluate the use of individual UAVs in specific circumstances and make recommendations on their use based on how effective they would be for the mission and how cost effective they are. And the company plans to bring in both military and non-military technologies to tackle the problems involved in border control and surveillance under SBI, Dragone added.
“DHS is looking for the right mix of people, technology and physical infrastructure and process improvement,” Dragone said.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOCUS
Doug Smith, vice president of Ericsson government solutions, characterized his company as very different from the others competing for the SBInet contract. The characteristics that create that difference make Ericsson the best candidate to run SBInet, he argued.
“We are a commercial company, not a DoD integrator,” Smith said. “We have a very different culture. In our business, if we are late on a project we overrun costs, our customers don’t give us any more business. Then we go out of business.”
Defense firms, by contrast, have been able in the past to obtain schedule extensions or additional funding to address cost overruns, Smith said.
SBInet is fundamentally a communications problem, he said, adding that Ericsson excels at communications, having built some of the largest national communications networks in the United States for clients such as mobile phone companies Cingular and T-Mobile.
“This is a very big network. It’s a nationwide network along those borders. It’s a big communications problem, which we lead in. It’s also a big border surveillance problem, which we also lead in,” Smith said. “But it’s about getting it done quickly. There is a lot of political pressure on this. It needs to happen reliability and on time. That’s our basic business model. That’s what we do every day.”
Smith observed that Ericcson’s support for Norway with border control measures under the Schengen Agreement among European nations also differentiates his company.
“The Schengen border in Europe is a program just like this. We are the leader in doing solutions over there. Their issues are very similar,” Smith said. “It has been done, and we are doing it.”
The Schengen Agreement took shape in a 1985 treaty that established common border security issues among the European nations that signed it. Over the past several years, participating nations have begun implementation of border surveillance programs under the framework of the agreement. Ericsson serves as the integrator on Norway’s Schengen border program.
“Those countries are all somewhere in the process of building border surveillance and control systems. Some are still studying it. Some are in the RFP stage and near to making awards. And in one case it has actually been built and operational for two years, and that’s the Norwegian border,” Smith said.
Smith suggested that Ericsson could begin to address the U.S. border security problem by duplicating its measures along the Norway/Russia border in 200-mile segments. But he added that other elements would become part of the mix for a U.S. solution. Those other elements could include UAVs and walls along the border.
“UAVs are a part of the solution. There are areas where that is the preferred way to go. They are not the answer where there are a large number of crossings,” Smith said. “Beyond the risk of mechanical problems, maintainability issues and cost issues, UAVs do not work in adverse weathers. You wouldn’t want all of the bad guys waiting until there’s a thunderstorm to cross the border because the UAVs can’t fly in them. So they are part of the solution, but they are definitely not the answer. We need a border control that is 24/7, 365 days a year, not just when the weather is nice.”
The construction of a wall or part of a wall along the southern U.S. border, as strongly advocated by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and others, also has a place in Smith’s view. “The wall is part of the solution. It’s a very limited part of the solution, but it does have a place in the solution. It’s the only way to absolutely control the border. But it is a part of the solution and there are certain areas where if you just use a sensor solution, your response would have to be very quick before the targets are lost in a crowd of people, for example” Smith said. “What you are really trying to do, as a kind and gentle nation, is capture people and send them back without hurting them,” he concluded. “So what you really need is deterrence. To get there, Customs and Border Patrol need to be efficient and effective. We are trying to help them do that.” ♦
