By Calvin Biesecker
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) this Friday is scheduled to present its plans to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the way ahead for a new multi-mission aircraft that can be outfitted with an integrated sensor suite to carry out missions currently being performed by several different types of aircraft.
Depending on the direction the DHS Investment Review Board provides, CBP hopes in early FY ’09 to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) to industry for the Multi-mission Enforcement Aircraft, Doug Koupash, executive director for mission support for CBP Air and Marine, told Defense Daily yesterday.
Last week CBP issued a Request for Information (RFI) from companies regarding the MEA, which will be a commercially available aircraft. Last fall CBP first introduced its emerging MEA plans to industry.
Originally CBP had planned to acquire up to 16 Dash-8s from Canada’s Bombardier. The agency currently has four of the aircraft and three more on order. However, when Bombardier decided to cease production of the current model in favor of a larger version, CBP decided to do a rigorous review of its air assets, with one of the outcomes being a new Operational Requirements Document and a performance specification to go along with it for the MEA, Koupash said.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) this week asked interested companies for information on commercially available aircraft that can be outfitted with an integrated sensor suite that is also commercially available to carry out multiple missions currently being performed by several different types of aircraft.
The missions that would be performed by the MEA include maritime and ground surveillance, airborne tracking, logistical support and signal intelligence collection. Emphasis is on the maritime and ground surveillance missions, CBP says.
The minimum requirements for the sensor suite include multi-mode radar with automatic capability to detect and track air and surface targets, and provide weather detection, an electro-optic and infrared sensor house in a 360-degree continuous rotation turret for long-range visual search, surveillance and tracking. CBP says the sensor payload must be able to do laser range finding, laser illumination, video, and IR video, sensor tracking, geographic pointing, and automatic focus and tracking.
The aircraft should include a cargo door to facilitate the loading and unloading of the mission equipment system, passenger seats and cargo. It should also accommodate seating for two crew members in the cockpit and at least one, preferably two, sensor operators. In the air and ground interdiction and air mobility roles the aircraft should accommodate the two crewmembers in the cockpit and eight additional tactical team members.
Koupash declined to specify the numbers of MEAs that CBP hopes to buy, in part because this will be dependent on the outcome of the forthcoming IRB meeting.
In addition to not having the opportunity to buy nine more of the current model Dash-8s, CBP has decided to replace 16 ageing Hawker Beechcraft C-12s, and 10 other older aircraft. Koupash said that CBP’s plan is to replace these aircraft with the MEAs and also leave room for mission growth, which means being able to purchase more aircraft in the future as necessary.
CBP is in the second year of a 10-year investment plan to consolidate its 19 different types of air assets, which number about 270 in total, to around eight or nine, Koupash said. The agency’s various fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft include the venerable P-3 maritime surveillance and tracking plane supplied by Lockheed Martin [LMT], the Dash-8, C-12s, general aviation-style Piper aircraft supplied by Textron [TXT], the Predator unmanned aircraft system supplied by General Atomics, and more.
The Air and Marine operation is a relatively small outfit within CBP, consisting of 1,450 personnel. That is up 200 people in the last two years and the desired end state is 3,000, Koupash said.
In addition to the 270 aircraft, Air and Marine is also responsible for 150 marine vessels.
In July congressional appropriators gave the go ahead to CBP to move forward with the MEA program by reprogramming FY ’08 funds. Koupash declined to say how much was reprogrammed but said it is enough to jump start the program even if DHS operates under a continuing budget resolution well into FY ’09 as is expected.
There is no guarantee that the upcoming IRB meeting will automatically result in approval for CBP to release the RFP for the new aircraft. The board may want additional work done, Koupash said. Once plans are finalized and based on the responses from industry to the RFI, CBP will also be able to decide on a procurement plan. That plan would either be one where the government buys the aircraft and then contracts out to a systems integrator for the selection and integration of the sensor suite or just award a contract to a single integrator whose proposal included a particular aircraft, he said.