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.