Project 28 falls short of promise, requiring three year extension

A black mark for Boeing: The prototype border security project which DHS accepted last week lacks the operational capabilities that DHS had hoped it would have. As a result, the department has extended the time frame for the first phase of SBInet by three years, government auditors said. FCW’s Ben Bain writes that DHS accepted Boeing’s system of cameras, sensors, towers, and software to secure a twenty-eight-mile stretch of the Arizona border (hence the name Project 28) last week under the assumptions that the system was a value-add and a building block. Lawmakers of both parties have said they thought Project 28 would meet the overall operational goals of SBInet, DHS’s multibillion-dollar effort to use technology and infrastructure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Project 28 was expected to be operational early last summer, but software integration problems delayed it. Lawmakers have questioned whether the decision to accept the system in its current form was the result of diminishing expectations. “It’s not really what they had envisioned,” Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said at a joint hearing on SBInet by two subcommittees of House Homeland Security Committee.

Testing is not complete, but Project 28’s ability to detect intrusions is expected to be lower than the rate of 95 percent, plus or minus 5 percent, that DHS wants. “After so many years of promises and testing and millions of dollars spent, we are no closer to a technology solution for really securing the border,” said Representative Bill Pascrell (D-New Jersey). “This is unacceptable, unacceptable