Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm, estimates that the global border control market will generate $8.7 billion in sales by 2019 versus $2 billion in 2010 due to the rise both of international travel and mandatory implementation of e-Passports for International Civil Aviation Organization countries by 2015, which is expected to boost adoption of e-Gate systems. Frost & Sullivan says that the e-Passport segment is likely to remain the largest in the total border control market but that the e-Gate segment will be the fastest growing between 2011 and 2019, going from a 14 percent share in 2010 to 38 percent in 2019.
Customs and Border Protection expects to issue the Request for Proposal for the Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) border surveillance systems on or about March 7. A fixed-price, single award contract is planned requiring the selected contractor to build, install and test the IFT system in each Border Patrol Area of Responsibility (AOR) no later than one year after contract award for the base quantity and no later than one year after exercising an option for additional AORs. The initial IFT deployment is slated for Nogales, Ariz., with options for five additional AORs within Arizona.
Chemring Detection Systems (CDS) has received two small contracts from the Joint Project Manager for Nuclear Biological and Chemical Contamination Avoidance worth a combined $500,000 for work on chemical detection. The first award is in the Raman category for test and evaluation of the handheld THOR-1064 product currently in development at CDS. The THOR-1064 detects the presence of compounds in solid or liquid form, identifies the compounds, and automatically alarms. The second award is in the Ion Mobility Spectrometry category for test and evaluation of the Differential Mobility Spectrometer Vapor Detection System, a developmental prototype that is a non-contact vapor detector. The system has been implemented in CDS’ JUNO handheld vapor detector. CDS is a subsidiary of Britain’s Chemring Group.