Nine towers will be deployed within the 28-mile long test area. Like the towers to follow, the structures will be in constant wireless contact with command centers and Border Patrol vehicles equipped with laptop computers. The towers will be placed in locations targeted to maximize their coverage range, though the structures are designed to reposition to alternate sites if they're needed in another area. Boeing estimates it will require some 1800 towers to cover both borders.
DHS will augment the towers with other land- and air-based surveillance technologies. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for instance, will fly over areas where tower installation would be impossible or impractical due to terrain or logistical issues. Each UAV will incorporate a scaled-down complement of sensors that are similar to the kind used on the towers.
Boeing tapped Elbit Systems of Haifa, Israel, to supply its Skylark, a hand-launched UAV (Fig. 3). Back on Earth, detection devices like seismic and pressure sensors will be deployed to sense footsteps and moving vehicles. "Unattended ground sensors [are located] in areas that are very difficult for radar to operate in because of ground clutter or interference from mountains," Goure says.
The SBInet strategy also includes border agents. In addition to laptop-equipped vehicles, agents are set to receive Iridium satellite phones, which can work along both national borders without any coverage gaps (Fig. 4).
"In the border areas, there's not a lot of terrestrial communications infrastructure that can be leveraged," says Scott Scheimreif, assistant VP for government programs at Iridium Satellite.
The phones can be connected to an agent's laptop to exchange data with the command center or a laptop inside another Border Patrol vehicle. The Iridium satellite constellation also provides central command with the precise geographical position of each phone user.
"The information becomes valuable when a trigger goes off and headquarters needs to send the closest available agent to investigate," says Scheimreif.
WILL IT WORK?
While SBInet will incorporate a wide array of technologies during its initial phase, none are particularly cutting-edge or experimental. "Much of this pilot SBInet is based on commercially available, mature, stable technology," says Steve Bither, chief technology officer of Stanley, a government systems and services provider.
Bither notes that developing an infrastructure that uses only tested technologies will help Boeing keep costs down by eliminating the surprises and delays that emerging technologies typically create. As the project moves forward, however, Boeing may adopt a DARPA-like approach and begin sponsoring SBInet-relevant research projects.
Despite all of the money and expertise being poured into SBInet, many critics are skeptical that the project can live up to its promise of securing the nation's borders. Richard Sterk, electronics group leader and analyst for Forecast International, a military electronics market research and analysis firm, says that only two border areas in history have been successfully protected with surveillance technologies.
"That was West Berlin/East Berlin and the North Korean demilitarized zone," he notes. "And the reason those two worked is [because] they had unlimited funding." Boeing, on the other hand, will have no more than $2.5 billion to complete the project within its three-year time frame.
Even if the system can be installed on time and within budget, some observers wonder about the technology's long-term physical durability and resistance to vandalism. A big concern is that devices failing prematurely could drive SBInet's cost substantially higher.
"They [Boeing and DHS] think it's reliable in terms of being out there in the heat and all the rest," Goure says. "But experimentation will tell whether you need more cooling, additional hardening to prevent people from messing with the tower, and that sort of thing."
The towers' primary security technology is a detection system that's connected to a pair of "loud-hailer" horns. The horns can blast a voice command or warning from an agent at headquarters. The speakers require manual operation, though, and aren't activated automatically when tampering is detected.
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