Contracts

TSA awards CSC a $489 million IT infrastructure contract
TSA awards CSC an IT infrastructure protection contract worth approximately $489 million for a five year life cycle; the contract is for the deployment, maintenance, and enhancement of TSA’s IT infrastructure capabilities
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TIE Technologies unveils BIO Metric and intelligent video technology development project
Edward Andercheck, chairman and CEO of TIE Technologies: “Today’s science has made it possible to identify and authenticate the ‘one of a kind’ unique BIO Signature generated by individuals entering or leaving designated areas, thereby enabling the protection of buildings and weapon systems, and empowering security in large cities everywhere.”
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U.S. lawmakers increasingly impatient with virtual U.S.-Mexico border fence concept
U.S. lawmakers grow impatient with U.S.-Mexico border virtual fence scheme; Senator Joseph Lieberman: “By any measure, SBInet, has been a failure. A classic example of a program that was grossly oversold and has badly under-delivered”; Senator John McCain: “The virtual fence has been a complete failure.”
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Calls grow for federalizing government building security
DHS’s Federal Protective Service (FPS) has a budget of about $1 billion, and employs 1,225 full-time workers and 15,000 contract security guards at more than 2,300 federal facilities nationwide; in fiscal 2009 the service obligated $659 million for guards, the single largest item in its budget; a GAO reports criticizes the work of many of the guards and the contracts which employ them, and lawmakers debate whether to federalize federal buildings security responsibilities
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DHS's chief of commercialization: competition for contracts stiffer than ever before
The good news is that there is an abundance of private-sector companies that want to work with DHS; the bad news is that with competition being stiffer than ever before, companies seeking business have to try harder to differentiate themselves from the crowded field
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Pentagon contractor said to have set up a private unit to kill militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan
A U.S. government contractor alleged to have diverted funds to set up a unit of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants; “While no legitimate intelligence operations got screwed up, it’s generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond,” one U.S. government official said
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Smiths Detection's mid-sized X-ray system added to TSA's Air Cargo Screening Qualified List
By August 2010, all cargo carried on passenger planes will have to be screened; Smiths Detection’s latest addition to its list of cargo screening machines — a pallet-sized scanner — is the company’s sixth technology approved to help shippers meet TSA August 2010 100 percent air cargo screening deadline
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Unisys withdraws protest to GAO over TSA's ITIP contact
Unisys filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the awarding the TSA’s Information Technology Infrastructure Program (ITIP) contract to Computer Sciences Corp; the ITIP award has been worth over $1 billion to Unisys and going forward was valued at $500 million over five years to run TSA’s information technology infrastructure; Unisys has now withdrawn the protest
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PharmAthene says its anthrax vaccine is superior to first-generation vaccine
PharmAthene’s anthrax vaccine, called SparVax, will require three doses over a 60-day period — the first-generation vaccine requires five doses over 18 months; a course of treatment with the currently available vaccine costs about $125; SparVax would cost just $45 a treatment
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Private industry sees opportunities in cybersecurity
Nadia Short, director of Strategic Planning and Business Development Information Assurance Division at General Dynamics: “The release of the [DHS] budgets earlier this month indicate a growth in cyberspending across all the services…. With that, as well as continuing the natural evolution of what cyber will mean for dot-gov and dot-mil, it will mean nothing but opportunity for private industry”
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$150 million anthrax vaccine contract goes to firm with close Democratic Party ties
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on the evening of 29 December that it was awarding PharmAthene $150 million to develop and produce an anthrax vaccine; FOXNews notes the strong ties to the Democratic Party of senior company executives
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Bill would prohibit use of private security contractors in war zones
Two U.S. lawmakers introduce a bill which would prohibit the use of private security contractors in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan; one-fifth of the U.S. armed forces in Iraq consists of private contractors, while in Afghanistan that number reached one-third
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LGS on Lockheed Martin team for $31 million DARPA cyber assurance contract
LGS selected by Lockheed Martin as a subcontractor for a 31 milllion dollar DARPA-funded contract to develop cyber procedures which will provide military untis with dynamic bandwidth allocation
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U.S.-Mexico border fence hobbled by delays, technical problems
The future of the U.S.-Mexico border fence is in doubt; the project, contracted by DHS to Boeing, has been plagued by technical glitches from the start; among other things, the radar system had trouble distinguishing between vegetation and people when it was windy; also, the satellite communication system took too long to relay information in the field to a command center; by the time an operator moved a camera to take a closer look at a spot, whatever had raised suspicion was gone; Obama’s proposed 2011 budget cuts $189 million from the venture
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Contractor surge: 56,000 contractors to accompany the 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan
The Obama administration’s decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan is just one aspect of the surge; these troops will be accompanies by up to 56,000 additional contractors; as of September, the Defense Department had 104,101 contractors employed in Afghanistan
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