Posted on 08/26/2006 6:30:37 AM PDT by Dysart
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 Homeland Security Department calls the proposed Secure Border Initiative Net the "most comprehensive effort in the nation's history" to gain control of more than 6,000 miles of border with Mexico and Canada as well as 2,000 miles of coastline.
SBInet is a centerpiece of President Bush's efforts to fortify the porous U.S.-Mexico border while Congress is locked in a struggle to overhaul 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 an intensely fought contract battle among industry teams headed by four leading defense companies -- Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon -- and Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications giant which has its U.S. headquarters in Plano.
Collectively, the teams comprise nearly 40 companies in more than 15 states, a broad and diverse lineup that includes global engineering firms, niche industries adept at biometric identification or surveillance, and blue-ribbon aerospace corporations that are better known for churning out warplanes, tanks and missiles.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a branch of the Homeland Security Department, 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 over the next six years. The initial cost is projected at $2.5 billion but could go much higher.
Although Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Michael P. Jackson told industry officials that 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 9-11 and the recent alleged terrorist plot in Britain. But the project has come under heightened scrutiny on Capitol Hill after a congressional report last month blasted department procurement polices.
The bipartisan report, released by Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Government Reform Committee, identified $34.3 billion worth of Homeland Security 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., said SBInet could be exposed to the same problems, contending that the department 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 underscore the defense industry's expanding transition into homeland security. Tools of war -- such as radar and satellite surveillance -- can be redirected into the campaign to guard the home front.
"We see it as an increasing market," said John Douglass, president and chief executive 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 team members started preparing for the project more than two years ago, when Homeland Security was considering a since-abandoned initiative called America's Shield. Team representatives have spent months on the border, and several of the bidders have set up remote border-area test sites to evaluate their equipment.
Nearly 60 potential bidders expressed interest in the project before the department 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 over the past two weeks and have until Monday to update their proposals. One major defense contractor, L-3 Communications, is effectively competing against itself, with units positioned on three teams.
While SBInet bristles with opportunity, the winning team will face immense obstacles in trying to create a leak-proof "virtual wall" traversing rugged desert terrain in the south and mountainous, wooded landscape in the north. The challenges will probably 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 an integrated and modernized 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.
In a January briefing, 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, smell. The sensor then would flash an alarm on a 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.
The project could unleash a construction boom along the Mexican and Canadian borders as the winning consortium erects buildings, roads and an as-yet-unspecified stretch of barriers and fences to complement the high-tech shield.
Accordingly, most of the teams bristle with engineering and architectural talent, such as HNTB and Fluor Corp., a 35,000-employee international construction company that moved its headquarters from California to Irving this year. Fluor is a member of Ericsson's team.
Dam, just build a wall already.
Personally, I would put Henry Waxman down on the border.
They refuse to pay for adequate BP positions. They refuse to pay for a fence. Any bets on the funding of all this nonsense?
This is a drop in the bucket. We're spending $4b a month in Iraq. $50b a year dealing with illegals.
I see this as just another cluster-fukc just like rebuilding the WTC.
Mark my words. You'll see every politician from Maine to Mexico stirring the pot. Nothing will get done in a FReeper's lifetime.
btt
Election year BS.
If, on the other hand, we could put up a class 6 containment field.....just as likely I guess.
ping
At the very least, they are starting to feel the heat. I suppose it's better than ignoring the problem entirely (see the last 20 years).
Hire Haliburton and be done with it.
G&S were way ahead of their time, or, politicians have not changed from Victorian times....
I don't want your brand of "governing"....
A lot of the Mexican border is hilly & rocky along the Rio Grande. A wall simply won't work. That's why you need the gizmos.
Otherwise, yes build the wall, regardless of the costs.
First, can you spell b-o-o-n-d-o-g-g-l-e?
The initial cost is projected at $2.5 billion but could will go much higher.
This has the potential to make the Big Dig look like pocket change.
Second, has anybody seen any plans for this? Personally, I'd like a wall like the picture (thanks kellynla) in reply #5 above. But that will never get built as it would get the job done. So, failing that, I like the parallel fences with anti-vehicle ditches on each side.
Bonus, read my tag. Follow the link. Start on page 23 of the .pdf file which is page one of the report.
I'd put my money on Raytheon. I think they have the best track record for this sort of thing.
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