http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09244r.pdf
And here is the GAO testimony on the virtual fence to Congress. http://homeland.house.gov/SiteDocuments/20080227105433-48186.pdf
Boeing's virtual-fence pilot project was delivered more than six months late and was plagued with problems. The next portion was supposed to be up by last December, but the work was halted last August because of technical problems. DHS spent as much money on the virtual fence as it did on the actual fence, with very little to show for it. The actual fence went up and is working. The virtual fence, not so much. So they have chosen to fund the failing project and not fund the one that works.
Par for the Obama course.
The “virtual fence” is misnamed. It is a monitoring and detection system.
Project 28 was a technology demonstrator and it served its purpose-—to field new technology in a limited area to determine what technology worked and what didn’t, to figure out best use and tactics, and to help refine the process. It did all that, as you don’t want to built an entirely new system and deploy it along a 28-mile stretch without testing it.
The fielding of the system (now that the bugs have been worked out) is ready to go and is being employed. In the meantime Mobile Surveillance Systems are doing spot-work and the technology is working like gang-busters.
Oh, there was a tower in the test phase that was idle for a while and CBP asked it be removed and it was. Well, what do you know, in a few weeks that area was the new high-speed highway north. The tower was brought back in and the traffic stopped.
So there is another added benefit for the towers: they are deterring traffic. Kind of like a mine-field, those are not specifically laid to kill but to shape the battlefield, and the towers are used in that manner. . .funnel the traffic.
The SBInet is like an AWACS to a fighter, it “sees” the battlefield and manages the fight. SBInet as AWACS will “see” into Mexico and with that information position Border Patrol Agents where they need to be for the intercept and take-down.
Stopping work was down for political purposes (I attended a couple of the hearings. Nothing but political posturing). Thing is, DHS/CBP are novices when it comes to inside the Beltway processes and how to fight back. They lose every time because they don’t respond with facts. In fact, they don’t respond at all, instead sit back and take credit for any successes and defer negative press to the contractor. They got that part down but they don’t appreciate by acting this way they lose because they don’t seen to have a handle on the situation.