Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from industry related to market conditions and technology as part of the agency’s development of an acquisition of surveillance blimps for border security.
CBP is currently operating six of the blimps, called the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), along the U.S. border with Mexico. There are also two additional sites where the systems are monitoring the Florida Straits and the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Rico.
The TARS systems were transferred from the Air Force to the Department of Homeland Security in 2013.
According to a the Feb. 25 RFI, the current TARS system is aging and the radar technology is more than 20 years old and no longer in production while some of the ground system components are no longer supported by the manufacturer.
“This overall obsolescence issue decreases operational availability stemming from higher maintenance cycles, as well as increasing maintenance costs commensurately,” the RFI says. These cost and performance issues are expected to continue to worsen, CBP says.
Under separate contracts Exelis [XLS] is responsible for managing most of TARS including the aerostats, radars and property while Northrop Grumman [NOC] oversees the processing and distribution of the radar data. Under a forthcoming Request for Proposals, CBP plans to combine both contracts into a single award in an open competition.
CBP wants from the new services contract improved surveillance capabilities and mission availability, lower operating costs, and potentially alternative business models for program and system management effectiveness and efficiency.
The average annual contract costs were $36 million between 2011 and 2013. Last year, costs were $34 million and are expected to be $33 million in the coming years.
The aerostats operate at about 10,000 feet.