Radar, connectivity problems delay full operation of SBInet

Land owners and ranchers in southern Arizona may have problems with the towers Boeing is erecting along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of its SBInet contract, but they are not the only ones. DHS, too, has problems with these ungainly towers: The first nine of them were discovered to have radar problems, and so they missed the to deadline of 13 June to become fully operational. As a result, the full operation of the first segment of the system — called Project 28 becasue it stretches along a twenty-eight mile section of the border - was also delayed (there was another problem: Electronically integrating the nine towers).

Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) and Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-California) wrote DHS secretary to say that Congress should have been advised of the delays before a 7 June hearings on the project. “It is difficult to believe that with problems of this magnitude, delays were not foreseeable at the June 7 hearing, which occurred less than a week prior to the date Project 28 was scheduled to be operational,” their letter to Chertoff states. “The Department’s failure to be forthcoming and the repeatedly slipping project deadlines not only impede Congress’ ability to provide appropriate oversight of the SBInet program, but also undermine the Department’s credibility with respect to this initiative,” Thompson and Sanchez wrote.

Washington Technology’s Alice Lipowicz reports that when discussin the project with the congressional panel on 7 June, representatives of Boeing and DHS made no mention of the two delays.