Field testing in August of two aerostats equipped with surveillance gear along Texas’ border with Mexico showed that the technology is “very effective” for border security applications, although Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continues to review the test results to make sure it has all the necessary knowledge to make decisions about using the technology going forward, a senior agency official tells a congressional panel.
CBP is evaluating what the costs of deploying and operating aerostats would be for the agency, what it would take to train its people to use them, and in general make sure the technology is affordable, Mark Borkowski, assistant commissioner for CBP’s Office of Technology Innovation and Acquisition, tells the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management.
“We want to make very clear that as we go into using this technology we are aware of what the complete bill will be,” Borkowski says.
The aerostat technology has been used extensively by U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to help provide surveillance for military bases. The systems can remain aloft to provide constant surveillance.
CBP deployed aerostats that were made by Raven Aerostar with Logos Technologies as the lead integrator for the sensor packages. L-3 Communications [LLL] also provided sensors for the tests.
Congress, in particular the House Homeland Security Committee, has been pressing CBP to examine using military surveillance technologies for the border security mission in the United States The committee’s message is that the research and development dollars have already been expended by the Defense Department, making it easier for CBP to essentially either purchase the equipment off the shelf or just have it given to the agency by the military.
However, Borkowski says that he is being cautious in his approach to using and deploying technology developed for the military so that he can make sure it is affordable from his agency’s perspective. He has said in the past that the military can afford to use some equipment that a civilian agency such as his can’t.
But the DoD technology “looks very promising,” he tells the panel.
He also says that CBP’s relationship with the Defense Department has improved to the point where in some cases they are storing equipment with CBP so that the agency can examine and test it.
CBP has been evaluating tripod mounted camera and radar systems along portions of the Arizona border with Mexico. That technology has also been in use in military war zones. Other equipment that CBP is looking at includes long-range handheld imagers, Borkowski says.
It is “modest things” that CBP is looking at when it comes to transferring military technology to the agency, he said.
Borkowski briefly updated the panel on the status of technology CBP has either bought or is close to buying to boost border security in Arizona. The Remote Video Surveillance System, which is essentially pole and tower-mounted day/night cameras, is close to a source selection, he says.
The agency’s marquis ground-based surveillance project, the Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) system, is also in source selection but Borkowski says CBP received so many bids that it will take a while to do the “due diligence” on them. The agency has said it expects to make an award in December although Borkowski seemed to indicate that the schedule will slip.
However, he says that he’s happy with the number of proposals and believes it’s an indication that CBP successfully conveyed to industry that it wants non-developmental technology, adding that “it doesn’t have to do everything if it does a lot and is a good deal; that’s good enough.”
The IFT system will consist of integrated cameras and radars and related communications systems mounted on fixed-towers along certain stretches of Arizona’s border with Mexico. If the initial deployments are successful, CBP will continue to roll additional systems out in Arizona and elsewhere.
CBP has also been evaluating Mobile Surveillance Systems that have camera and radar technology on telescopic poles. Borkowski says that testing of these is nearly done and the systems are about to go operational. FLIR Systems [FLIR] and Griffon Corp.’s [GFF] Telephonics division have supplied the mobile systems for CBP to evaluate.