Once again, the Trump administration is going all in with its commitment to building physical barriers along portions of the nation’s southwest border, requesting $5 billion in fiscal year 2020 for its wall system but just tens of millions of dollars in ground-based surveillance technology.
“The American people and our law enforcement personnel rightfully demand effective border security as supported by the White House budget, building the wall and giving the men and women of DHS the support, tools, and resources they need to safeguard our territory,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement the evening of March 18 to announce the release of the details in the department’s budget request to Congress.
The wall system includes camera technology for enforcement purposes but the budget documents don’t specify the amount of funding dedicated to the sensor portion of the wall system. The $5 billion request would cover 206 miles of border wall.
Outside of the proposed wall funding, the largest chunk of proposed funding for ground surveillance technology is for the Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS) that is provided by General Dynamics [GD]. The request for RVSS acquisition funding of $40.7 million and would be for systems in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. Another $47.7 million is being sought for RVSS operations and support.
CBP in the March 18 budget documents says the proposed RVSS funding would be for 22 fixed tower sensors and related command and control technology. The documents say that technology deployments in Rio Grande City, McAllen and Weslaco, Texas, are dependent on the program schedule for the border wall. The RVSS systems are equipped with electro-optic and infrared cameras and communications technology.
The next largest ground-surveillance technology request is for the Mobile Video Surveillance System (MVSS), which is supplied by FLIR Systems [FLIR]. CBP is seeking $14.8 million to buy and deploy 30 MVSS units to achieve the final operating capability of the system with 165 units in phase one of the acquisition plan. The new units will be deployed along the border in Texas.
The MVSS units are truck-mounted sensors on a telescopic poll that include electro-optic and infrared camera suites, radar, and command and control technology.
No funding is included in the request for Phase 2 of the mobile surveillance program, which is known as the Modular Mobile Surveillance System (M2S2). CBP says in FY ’20 it plans to obtain a milestone acquisition decision to approve the M2S2 program in FY ’20 and complete the acquisition plan and Request for Proposal package for the systems.
The MVSS request includes $14 million for operations and support activities.
CBP says it plans to order 137 MVSS units in FY ’19.
The Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) program, which is provided by Elbit Systems of America, would receive $32.1 million for operations and support and $1.1 million for acquisition in CBP’s request. The acquisition funds are for deployments to the Border Patrol’s Casa Grande Station in the Tucson Sector. The agency says the funding will allow it to complete IFT deployments to the baseline program Areas of Responsibility in FY ’21. Elbit Systems of America is part of Israel’s Elbit Systems [ESLT].
IFT systems include networked electro-optic and infrared cameras, radars, and command and control technology, and power generation for persistent wide-area surveillance to detect, track, identify and classify illegal entries where mobile solutions are not a viable or long-term solution.
CBP’s border security acquisition request also includes $15 million to buy and deploy 50 fixed-wing small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and $12.1 million for testing remote surveillance technology. The small UAS systems provide reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition for Border Patrol agents in remote, inaccessible areas of the border.
The Remote Surveillance Technology Innovation program is leveraging commercial off the shelf technology for low cost, autonomous surveillance capabilities. CBP is exploring the use of the technologies to add to its technology mix and determine where more of the systems can be used and where they aren’t needed.
Congress provided $100 million for the acquisition of ground surveillance technologies in FY ’19.
The administration is also requesting $66.1 million for the acquisition and deployment of non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems at ports of entry, including $59.1 million for large-scale systems and $7 million for small-scale systems. Congress provided $564 million for NII system in the FY ’19 budget.
The large-scale NII systems are sued to inspect cargo and vehicles entering the U.S. at ports of entry. The agency currently has more than 300 large-scale systems and more than 4,000 small-scale systems at ports of entry. CBP in FY ’20 wants to continue to recapitalize its fleet of large-scale NII systems.
CBP plans to use $51.1 million to buy more than 20 large-scale systems for recapitalization needs and to meet new operational requirements in the sea, land and air ports of entry environments. The agency seeks $8 million to buy three large-scale systems at a land port of entry in Michigan, and will include a combination of low and multi-energy portals with under vehicle inspection systems.
The overall request for NII systems, including operations and support, is for $191.7 million.
The request for small-scale systems, which are used to examine bags and other small items, also includes $4.5 million in operation and support funds, bringing the total request to $11.5 million to buy over 50 systems.
CBP says its current NII contracts are with Leidos [LDOS] and American Science and Engineering, which is now part of OSI Systems [OSIS].