Border securityDHS seeking unattended sensors technology for border surveillance

DHS is canvassing industry to determine which companies are capable of building unattended ground sensors that can detect and locate people, boats, or vehicles moving along rivers, roads, and paths in dense forests. DHS needs this capability for border surveillance to monitor those entering the United States illegally in rough terrain.

The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) issued a request for information late last week to find out about state-of-the art technology capable of providing enhanced situational awareness in forests and rivers to detect small boats, small vehicles like ATVs and snowmobiles, and people on foot traveling through rivers and forests in attempts to sneak across U.S. borders.

John Keller writes that these unattended ground sensors must be able to penetrate foliage; have two years of battery life; be controlled and maintained remotely; be integrated into large border-monitoring networks; detect foot traffic and small motorized and unmotorized boats in fresh or salt water; have low false alarm rates with high probability of detection; use commercial communications standards; be placed at least 80 feet apart for continuous linear coverage; operate in temperatures from -50 to 50 degrees Celsius, as well as in wind, rain, snow, and sleet; operate in two to three feet of snow; operate at night and in daylight; must be camouflaged for concealment; and have secure, anti-tamper data capabilities.

Companies interested should submit white papers no longer than eight pages to DHS by e-mail no later than 27 August 2010. E-mail white papers to the DHS’s Alula Abera at alula.abera@associates.hq.dhs.gov.

For questions or concerns contact Abera by e-mail or by phone at 202-254-6896. Also contact the DHS’s Emily Graham by phone at 202.254.5611, or by e-mail at emily.graham@dhs.gov.