Boeing may not be paid for SBInet until system is usable

Boeing may have to wait a little longer to be paid: Before DHS pays for a multiyear, multibillion-dollar border security program, it needs to assure lawmakers the program is ready for use, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said. In September 2006, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) selected Boeing as the prime contractor for the SBInet program, a project aiming to use technology and tactical infrastructure to secure the country’s borders. The first task order in that contract was Project 28, which was meant to fortify a twenty-eight-mile section of the border near Sasabe, Arizona, and demonstrate SBInet’s ability to secure larger stretches of the border has been hampered by delays. FCW’s Ben Bain writes that lawmakers originally thought the project would be ready about six months ago, but DHS has not yet accepted the project from Boeing because of difficulty with integrating software, information collected from sensor towers, cameras, radar, and ground sensors software.

CBP recently completed Project 28’s system verification testing, said Michael Friel, an agency spokesman. The results from that test, which is the last phase of testing before an acceptance decision, will be used to determine whether the project’s technical issues have been resolved satisfactorily, he added. Friel said that Project 28 will serve as a prototype for SBInet. Bain writes that integration problems that Boeing needed to work through included delays in radar information transmittal and hypersensitive sensors, which were activated by rain drops. At a joint hearing the by the Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism subcommittee and the Management, Investigations and Oversight subcommittee, lawmakers harshly criticized CBP and Boeing officials for the delays. They also questioned Roger Krone, president of network and space systems at Boeing, and Gregory Giddens, executive director of DHS’ Secure Border Initiative, about the purpose of Project 28.