CBP Awards Peraton $189M to Support Tactical Aerostat Program

Peraton has received a potential five-year, $185.5 million contract from Customs and Border Protection in support of the Tactical Aerostat Systems (TAS) program. Peraton will provide around-the-clock domain awareness and long-range persistent ground surveillance along the U.S. border with Mexico. “The TAS program builds on our decade-plus partnership with DHS CBP providing integrated logistics support for the Tethered Aerostat Radar Systems program,” says John Coleman, president of Peraton’s Defense and Homeland Security sector. “Peraton operates and maintains the critical communications infrastructures that equip USBP agents with the vital intelligence to enforce functional borders, facilitating the flow of legal immigration and goods while preventing illegal trafficking of people and contraband across our nation’s borders.” The contract was awarded under the General Services Administration’s OASIS contracting vehicle.

Thruvision Nabs Contract To provide Body Scanners for State Department

The U.S. State Department has selected Thruvision to supply multiple units of the company’s people screening technology for use in Mexico. A federal procurement listing says the potential value of the award is $2.8 million. The contract is being funded by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico for use by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Thruvision will supply its TAC passive terahertz-screening system, which can be used to detect threats and identify prohibited items in high throughput applications. The company says the order adds to its deployments of more than 200 units in 19 countries worldwide.

DHS Reaches Milestone with 1000th SBIR Award

The Department of Homeland Security has passed the 1,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program contract milestone since the program’s inception in 2004 with the award of 24 new contracts, bringing the total number of SBIR awards to 1,018. The department awarded nearly $3.6 million in Phase I contracts to 22 companies, bringing the total spent in the program to more than $319 million. Of the latest awards, 19 were made through the Science and Technology Directorate and five through the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. This is a huge milestone for the DHS SBIR program as it signifies our history of investment in America’s innovating small businesses from which numerous technologies and concepts have been developed to support the homeland security mission,” says William Bryan, acting Under Secretary of S&T. Some of S&T’s successes through the SBIR program include investments in Rapid DNA, a low-cost flood sensor, a wearable sensor that lets firefighters know when surrounding temperatures are close to damaging their protective equipment, and an intrusion detection system for Internet of Things security. The awards are worth $150,000 each. S&T’s technical topic areas and related awardees include: Reach-Back Capability for Fielded Rapid DNA Systems, Bode Cellmark Forensics, Inc., Parabon NanoLabs, Inc., and SNA International; Identity, Credential, and Access Management, CardSmart Technologies, Oasys International Corp., and Waverly Labs; On-Body Power Module for First Responders, Cornerstone Research Group, Inc., Intellisense Systems, Inc., and TDA Research, Inc.; Modeling-based Design of Sensors for Chemical Detection in Complex Environment, N5 Sensors; Synthetic Training Data for Explosive Detection Machine Learning Algorithms, Innovision, LLC, and Synthetik Applied Technologies, LLC; Cybersecurity Peer-to-Peer Knowledge/Lessons Learned Tool, CardSmart Technologies, InferLink Corp., and Intelligent Automation Inc.; Network Modeling for Risk Assessment, Achilles Heel Technologies, Applied Training Solutions, LLC, and SecureLogix; and Blockchain Applications for Homeland Security Forensic Analytics, Integra FEC. The CWMD Office’s technical topic areas and related awardees include: Detector Integration with Current and Emerging Networked Systems, WGS Systems, LLC, and BlueEyeQ LLC; Unmanned Aerial System Autonomous Search of Limited Area for Radiological Threats, Intelligent Automation Inc., Charles River Analytics Inc., and Physical Sciences Inc. The solicitation was issued in December 2018.

DHS Awards ECS $276M for CDM Dashboard

The Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in partnership with the General Services Administration, has awarded a potential $276 million contract to ECS to design and deploy the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Dashboard Ecosystem, which provides cyber situational awareness to federal civilian agencies and summarizes risk exposure across the government at the federal level for DHS. The six-year task order was made under the GSA’s Alliant 2 government wide contracting vehicle. ECS says the dashboard includes data visualization, data ingest, indexing, and search performance, and will include cyber analytics delivered using business intelligence, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies. “New capabilities to be provided in the ecosystem include a threat intelligence platform for government-wide threat indicator sharing, integration of the AWARE risk-scoring algorithm, and rollout of security orchestration automation and response tools in order to automate key vulnerability remediation and defensive cyber operations,” it says.

ICE Awards Bode Cellmark $5M for Rapid DNA Testing

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded Bode Cellmark Forensics a $5.3 million contract to provide Rapid DNA testing. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit is seeking help with the implementation of a new Rapid DNA testing program that will aid in the identification of fraudulent familial relationships made by individuals entering or attempting to enter the U.S. The award to Bode follows a May 28 solicitation from ICE for systems that can provide comparisons of DNA profiles in 90 minutes or less, helping agents stop fraud and human trafficking. ICE this spring on the southwest border conducted a successfully pilot evaluation of Rapid DNA systems to help verify familial relations to thwart fraudulent claims of adult aliens accompanies by minors posing as family units. For the initial evaluations, ICE used Rapid DNA systems supplied by ANDE.

Magal Receives $6M for Perimeter Intrusion Technologies

Israel’s Magal Security Systems, Ltd. [MAGS] has received a $5.5 million contract to supply its perimeter intrusion detection technology systems to enhance security and prevent infiltration across an international border fence or wall. The customer wasn’t disclosed. Magal says the award is part of an existing project where the company’s systems are the technologically integral.