DHS Awards MITRE $862 Million To Continue Operating Homeland Security Center
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate on Wednesday said it has awarded MITRE Corp.
a potential five-year $862 million contract to continue operating a research and development center that provides independent technical expertise to the department and its components. MITRE has led the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HSSEDI) since 2009. HSSEDI is a federally-funded research and development center. The seven focus areas of HSSEDI include: acquisition planning and development; emerging threats, concept explorations, experimentation and evaluation; information technology and communications; cyber solutions and operations; systems engineering, system architecture and integration; technical quality and performance; and independent test and evaluation.
CBP Awards PAE $143M for Aircraft Services
Customs and Border Protection has awarded PAE a potential one-year, $143 million contract extension to continue providing aircraft maintenance and logistics services while the agency takes corrective actions following two filed against the recompeted contract that was awarded to DynCorp International [DI] last May. The award to DynCorp was potentially worth $1.4 billion over 10 and a half years. PAE, the incumbent on the contract for the past 10 years, and Vertex Aerospace protested the award. The contract extension has a six-month base period and two three-month options. The values of the base and option periods are redacted in the CBP announcement with the exception of the overall award potential. The original contract expired on March 31. Under the contract, PAE will provide services to ensure that CBP’s Air and Marine Operations has the numbers, types and properly configured aircraft available where and when required to meet law enforcement and national security aviation commitments. The contract doesn’t include AMO’s fleet of P-3 aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems. Separate contracts provide support to those aircraft.
CBP Awards Quantum Technology Sciences $10M for Tunnel Detection System
Geospace Technologies [GEOS] says its Quantum Technology Sciences, Inc., subsidiary has received a $10.3 million contract from Customs and Border Protection for a border security detection technology. A CBO spokesperson tells HSR that Quantum will “provide a tunnel technology solution for border security. This technology detects, identifies, locates, and follows activities of interest in real-time.” Geospace says that the contract is for technologies developed by Quantum under the Small Business Innovative Research program. The CBP spokesperson says that the procurement pursues technologies developed under SBIR’s Phase III designation. On its website, Quantum says its SADAR technology is based on seismic acoustics and can detect, track and classify a wide range of land-based potential threats including pedestrians, vehicles, surface digging and facility monitoring; detect, track and classify motorized watercraft and shallow submersibles; and detect and track unmanned aircraft systems, ultralight aircraft, and bullet detection and muzzle blast detection. “Threats along our U.S. border are becoming increasingly sophisticated,” says Mark Tinker, Quantum’s CEO. “It is of utmost importance to Quantum and very satisfying to our employees to be able to support the U.S. Border Patrol agents tasked with reducing the trafficking of weapons, drugs, and other contraband into and out of our country.”