Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last week awarded FLIR Corp. [FLIR] and Griffon Corp. [GFF] each contracts to supply the agency’s Border Patrol with mobile surveillance towers and equipment for use on the nation’s southwest border.

FLIR, through is acquisition last year of ICx Technologies, received a potential five-year, $101.9 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contract for the Mobile Surveillance Capability (MSC). Griffon’s Telephonics business unit received a potential five-year, $45.3 million contract for MSC.

The awards for the first year are funded with Recovery Act monies.

According to CBP briefing slides on the MSC program from January 2010, the MSCs will provide the Border Patrol with automated wide-area surveillance, including detection, identification and tracking, in real-time in daylight and at night throughout the year.

The MSC systems are being acquired to help fill gaps in the surveillance architecture left open by delays in the electronic fence portion of the Secure Border Initiative being integrated by Boeing [BA].