Lack of oversight doomed SBInet, could hamper replacement

leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day,” he added.

In an effort to address these concerns and reform its acquisition process, DHS is hiring more acquisition officers and re-examining its contractor oversight practices.

According to DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler, DHS “remains strongly committed to strengthening oversight of our major acquisition programs” and pointed to the department’s proposed 2011 budget which requested significant investments to hire more contract specialists.

The changes come as a direct response to criticism during the SBInet program.

“We are performing appropriate due diligence to help us define requirements, consider cost and capability, and ensure that we understand exactly what is available to support our needs,” Chandler said.

This emphasis on due diligence is part of our response to lessons learned from the past experiences with programs like SBInet.”

CBP, the bureau most directly linked to SBInet, has also recently established an office of technology innovation and acquisition to better manage large scale programs.

After announcing the cancellation of SBInet, DHS officials gave word that a replacement program would be built along the border.

The new program, dubbed the Integrated Fixed Towers system, has many of the same features and requirements of the program it replaces.

The CBP is actively seeking off the shelf solutions “for deployment at fixed, elevated sites, hereafter referred to as Integrated Fixed Towers, that would provide automated, persistent wide area surveillance for the detection, tracking, identification, and classification of illegal entries.”

According to Boeing spokesperson, Deborah Bosick, DHS will integrate much of SBInet’s technology into the new program.

In a statement, she writes, “DHS has made a decision to continue using technology in border security, and we appreciate that they recognize value of the integrated fixed towers Boeing has built, tested, and delivered so far.”

Critics of the program believe that it will encounter the same obstacles that beleaguered SBInet, despite the increased number of acquisition officers.

You’re not going to be able to solve border security problems in those extreme conditions both down South and up North using COTS [commercial off the shelf solutions],” said Rick “Ozzie” Nelson, director of the homeland security and counterterrorism program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Nelson recommends that a better solution would be to use existing military grade industrial systems that are more rugged and can withstand extreme temperatures instead of off the shelf products.

The ambitious SBInet program was the largest and most complex that DHS has managed thus far in its short history.