Thread: Billions at stake in border contract

Billions at stake in border contract

By Dave Montgomery
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is expected next month to choose an industry consortium to erect a high-tech security shield along the U.S. borders, launching one of the federal government's most ambitious public-works projects in years.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calls the proposed Secure Border Initiative Net (SBInet) the "most comprehensive effort in the nation's history" to gain control of more than 6,000 miles of border with Mexico and Canada, and 2,000 miles of coastline.

SBInet is a centerpiece of President Bush's efforts to fortify the U.S.-Mexico border at a time Congress is locked in a struggle to revise the nation's immigration laws. Administration officials say they intend to proceed with the security net regardless of the outcome of the debate over immigration legislation.

The multibillion-dollar undertaking has ignited a contract battle among industry teams headed by four leading defense companies — Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon — and Ericsson, the Swedish-based telecommunications giant with U.S. headquarters in Plano, Texas.

Competitors diverse

Collectively, the teams are composed of nearly 40 companies in more than 15 states, a diverse lineup that includes global engineering firms, niche industries adept at biometric identification or surveillance, and aerospace corporations better known for churning out warplanes, tanks and missiles.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a branch of the DHS, is expected to announce a winner by Sept. 30.

As envisioned by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, SBInet would marry industry expertise with the 42,000-employee Customs and Border Protection to create a wall of technology, manpower and infrastructure in the next six years. The initial cost is projected at $2.5 billion, but the price could be much higher.

The shield is a dominant component of the Secure Border Initiative that Chertoff announced in November to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. More than 1.2 million illegal immigrants were arrested in 2005, nearly all on the southern border.

Although Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Michael Jackson told industry officials the project is "not about simply buying gizmos," much of the attention has focused on the potential mix of technology. Most of the proposals include state-of-the-art sensors, mounted cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, radar and other surveillance hardware.

Calls for toughening the border have intensified with the approach of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the recent alleged terrorist bomb plot in Britain. But the project has come under heightened scrutiny on Capitol Hill after a congressional report last month blasted DHS procurement polices.

The bipartisan report, released by the House Committee on Government Reform, identified $34.3 billion worth of DHS contracts marred by significant overcharges, wasteful spending or mismanagement. The troubled projects include a largely ineffective camera-surveillance system along the Mexican and Canadian borders.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., complained that SBInet could be exposed to the same problems, contending the DHS is giving industry too much latitude in determining how the system should be tailored. "That's not governing," he said. "It's utter incompetence, and it's going to cost the taxpayers billions."

From the bidders' vantage point, SBInet could create thousands of jobs and illustrate the defense industry's expanding transition into homeland security. Tools of war — such as radar and satellite surveillance — easily can be redirected into the campaign to guard the home front, industry officials say.

"We see it as an increasing market," said John Douglass, president and chief executive officer of the Aerospace Industries Association. "Many of the technologies that make you a successful aerospace contractor would also make you a successful homeland-security contractor."

Several of the team members started preparing for the project more than two years ago, when the DHS was considering a since-abandoned border initiative called America's Shield. Team representatives spent months on the border, and several bidders set up remote border-area test sites to evaluate equipment.

Nearly 60 potential bidders expressed interest in the project before the DHS winnowed the field to the five rival teams. Universities in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona are aligned with several of the teams, reflecting academia's growing expertise in homeland security and border demographics.

Bidders made oral presentations in the past two weeks and have until Monday to update their proposals.

While SBInet bristles with opportunity, the winning team will face immense obstacles in trying to create a leakproof "virtual wall" traversing rugged desert terrain in the south and mountainous, wooded landscape in the north. The challenges probably will include property-rights disputes and environmental issues.

Sensors and cameras have been operating along the borders for years; the SBInet team will be charged with building a system tying all the pieces together. In addition to technology, the industry team will provide contract personnel for non-law-enforcement jobs and train government agents to adapt to the new system.

Sensors popular item

In January, Jackson urged industry officials to be innovative without straying "onto the wacky edge of creativity." Most proposals call for a network of thousands of sensors that would detect movement, sound and, in some cases, odor.

The sensor then would flash an alarm on a computerized map in a command-and-control center, where an operator would train a long-range mounted camera on the site to determine whether an animal or a human intruder tripped the alarm.

If necessary, agents would be dispatched. Several, if not all, of the teams would augment the protection with unmanned surveillance aircraft and, in some cases, high-altitude surveillance balloons.

For all the players, SBInet offers a chance for a giant leap into a burgeoning government market. Since the DHS was created in 2003 from the consolidation of 22 agencies and departments, procurement spending at the department rose from $3.5 billion to $10 billion in 2005, according to the House Committee on Government Reform.

For example, Perot Systems of Plano, founded by Dallas billionaire H. Ross Perot, has 700 employees working with the DHS under its 4-year-old government-services division. It would supply support personnel to command-and-control centers if its Boeing-led team wins the contract.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bi ... e=20060827

Hurry, hurry, hurry.

Elections coming up and we've got to set the bribe bait out.

The only requirements for this system are:

1) It costs the taxpayers billions of dollars.

2) It doesn't work at all.

No mention of more Border Patrol officers in that plan, unmanned surveillance vehicles will just record how many are coming over the border not stop them. No we do not need this kind of border security, we need manpower and a wall. We do not need billions of dollar contracts for big business that will not benefit american citizens or stop this invasion of illegal aliens in this country. Nice try Mr. Bush, we ain't buying it