Raytheon [RTN] recently won a three-year, $35.6 million contract from the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to provide an integrated surveillance solution for about 250 kilometers of Jordan’s land border.
The border security solution will include fixed towers that will be equipped with various sensors, including electro-optic and infrared cameras, radar systems, communications equipment, and a command and control system that integrates the various sensors into a common operating picture, David Appel, director of Surveillance, Range and Infrastructure Solutions at Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information & Services segment, told our sister publication, Homeland Security Report.
The contract was awarded in early March under the second installment of DTRA’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Integrating Contract (CTRIC), a multiple award, indefinite-delivery and indefinite quantity contract. Raytheon’s award is for Phase 2 of the Jordan Border Security Project. In addition to Raytheon, URS Corp. [URS], Parsons and Bechtel also compete for work under the CTRIC II contract.
In addition to providing equipment, Raytheon will train the Jordanian armed forces to maintain and operate the border surveillance system. The contract includes three options to provide additional capabilities that could be deployed within the current three-year timeframe of the award, Appel said.
So far, Raytheon has begun site surveys for the work but is still developing the baseline for deployment milestones but plans may call for an accelerated timetable, Appel said. Jordan shares borders with Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Phase 1 of the Jordan Border Security Project was performed by DRS Technologies, a U.S.-based division of Italy’s Finmeccanica, which deployed a mix of fixed and mobile surveillance towers and integrated command and control along about 100 kilometers of Jordan’s land border. At the time DRS won Phase 1, the program was managed from the U.S. Army’s Communications Command but is now with DTRA.
Appel said that Raytheon’s solution is based on open architecture and will incorporate elements of the Phase 1 work done by DRS. The open architecture nature of the program will allow Jordan to pull in other sensor systems and technologies if it wants to in the future, he said.
Raytheon did not disclose specific systems—or their manufacturers—that it is using for its Phase 2 solution. The company is modeling its solution with an in a test environment with an undisclosed partner in the southwest United States.
The work with Jordan is Raytheon’s first border security contract in that country but the company has developed and deployed border and maritime surveillance solutions previously, including work with DTRA securing 1,500 kilometers of the Ukraine’s maritime border along the Black Sea and another 250 kilometers of land border with Moldova.