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U.S. to give contracts on border technology

Inquiry into prior purchases ongoing

Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Dec. 15, 2005 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Federal officials are preparing to award billions of dollars in contracts to private firms for military-grade technology, including cameras, sensors and satellites, to help secure U.S. borders, despite an ongoing investigation into earlier purchases of faulty equipment.

The administration expects to spend $2.5 billion over the next five years for technology originally developed for the Pentagon. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said formal requests for proposals will go out soon. Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman told investors this month they plan to bid for the work.

But critics, including some in Congress, question whether the new gadgets will cut down on illegal activity on the border. Some say the Bush administration's cost estimates are too low.

"We haven't been shown what went wrong with this first pilot program in camera technology," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. "For that reason, I don't think they should be going forward with it."

Rogers heads a House subcommittee that is investigating an earlier contract for cameras along the border, including in Arizona. That contract ballooned from $2 million to $200 million, and many of the remote cameras never worked properly.

Government auditors still are looking into the purchase, and Rogers' committee will hold another hearing on it Friday .

The new technology will comprise a major part of a much-touted administration plan to secure the borders.

Officials want to install a system that brings together information and images from cameras, remote sensors, satellites and unmanned airplanes on the country's borders with both Mexico and Canada.

"We still need old-fashioned Border Patrol agents who are savvy," Chertoff said. "We still need to have beds and removal. But we also want to have high-tech."

Lawmakers who have pushed the administration to add more technology to the border said they're glad officials are moving closer to buying more.

"When you have a 2,000-mile border that has darn near every kind of terrain, then you've got to have different technology," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

Some high-tech gadgets already are being used successfully. A $14 million unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), like the ones used to hunt al-Qaida members in Afghanistan and insurgents in Iraq, has flown over the Border Patrol's Tucson sector since October. It has helped intercept more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants and more than 400 pounds of drugs, the agency said.

Military units from Fort Lewis, Wash., training for deployment to Iraq, worked with Border Patrol agents in New Mexico all through October, using Stryker armored vehicles with their sophisticated surveillance equipment to help spot smugglers crossing through the desert.

But experts in border security and in the technology the administration wants to install worry that too much emphasis is being put on gizmos.

"There's this notion with a lot of people that because we're the United States of America we can solve any problem with the proper application of force," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing about 10,000 agents on the northern and southern borders.

Many border experts say putting more gear on the border without changing immigration laws won't help much.

"So now we're going to get Gulf War II hand-me-downs, and it's a nice thing for a congressman to bring home a UAV," said the Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of Humane Borders, a Tucson-based organization that tries to help immigrants cross the border safely.

Bureaucratic problems also could slow the technology. So far, the Federal Aviation Administration has allowed Homeland Security officials to fly only one Predator drone along the Southwest border because FAA officials are worried about interfering with private aviation.

And costs easily could climb past the administration's estimate, critics said, pointing to the $200 million camera contract.

"Think about how many (Predator drones) you're going to need," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank that tracks military technology. "You could spend $10 million on one without breathing too hard, depending on what type of vehicle you're talking about. You have one of these things every how many miles - well, that's going to be a bunch of them. For every one that you've got up, you're going to have another one in the hangar, and then you have to have a bunch of people sitting there watching the TVs 24 hours a day, three shifts. That starts to add up."



Reach the reporter at mmadden@ gannett.com.