SBI chief maintains confidence in system, but DHS may pursue other technologies

By the latest accounts to Congress from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Border Patrol agents should have the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) system in their hands for operational testing along an initial segment of the US southwest border by now.

But they do not--and revised schedules indicate they will not until the fall of this year.

The continued delays with the implementation of an SBInet system prompted Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to initiate another review of the program last month to assess whether it holds any promise or whether it is simply a chain of delays in a chase of technology that cannot yet be developed.

"The idea at this point is not to kill SBInet," Mark Borkowski, the program's executive director, told HSToday.us. "Although if the assessment concludes we are tilting at windmills here, then we certainly would be prepared to say let's not send any more good money after bad.

"But, right now, my sense is that we are close. It's frustrating that we have these continued delays but my sense is that we are close," Borkowski emphasized.

Indeed, chief contractor The Boeing Co., Chicago, Ill., and its teammates have built the very first segment of the system along the southwest border near Tucson, Ariz.

DHS is running tests on the system, which largely works in a way the department likes, Borkowski characterized.

"It's got some areas where it's fragile; it's got some weaknesses we need to clean up before we do the full blown testing; but it seems fundamentally to be a pretty good system," he remarked.

To gain ground on the project, DHS plans to work with Boeing to put the system in the hands of Border Patrol agents within weeks to run some informal field tests before the final testing. This informal use would occur between system tests on the production system, which networks together surveillance towers carrying cameras and sensors into a common operating picture. The Border Patrol would use it in actual daily operations to get a feel as to whether it's a useful tool in support of its missions.

The latest round of delays are the fault of a host of minor but significant issues that have built up in recent months, Borkowski revealed. DHS uncovered a number of issues with the system about a year ago when it came out of system qualification tests.

The department and its contractors spent months working around them, "dealing with the systems but not dealing with the underlying disease," Borkowski stated.

Addressing those issues created more issues within a revised system.

"Over time, the issues are getting less and less difficult to handle, but they still take time," Borkowski noted.

The problems confronting the system now include software bugs, security patches, and glitches in the way the system works. Fixing the bugs and applying a backlog of security patches, although routine activities, require time.

Some unanticipated glitches also have slowed testing of the system. Each of the SBInet cameras have a digital video recorder attached to them, for example. Should one camera go dormant due to lack of activity to record, its DVR will shift to an active camera. But when a Border Patrol agent activates the dormant camera, the DVR does not shift back.

It's not hard to fix, Borkowski stressed, but identifying how to fix the problem, ordering the parts, procuring the parts, and replacing the parts have slowed down implementation of the system.

"It's very frustrating because we have the sense that this thing is converging. But even these relatively easy things to fix--although they are significant issues--take the kind of time that has pushed the schedule out," he commented.

At present, SBInet would undergo system acceptance testing probably in the summer and then Border Patrol would receive it for operational testing in the early fall.

Timelines and options

When SBInet first started up in 2006, its planners envisioned a system that would cover the entire US southwest border--about 2,000 miles--and cost about $8 billion. They also envisioned that they could roll it out along the entire border by 2011.

"Here we are in 2010," Borkowski remarked. "We have the deployment of the first production is at least constructed, although not yet tested and accepted. We are about to do the second area of responsibility. By the end of this year, if that all goes well, we should have 53 miles. That's the comparison between the original expectations and where we are today."

In the program's last report to Congress, DHS projected that it could roll out SBInet along the US southwest border by 2016. Borkowski believes the department could still achieve that goal if funding and commitments materialize.

But, he acknowledged, that should only happen if it's actually the right thing to do--hence, Napolitano's new assessment.

Given that SBInet has faced constant delays, it's fair to ask if the department should even continue to pursue the system, Borkowski said. If it does continue to pursue the system, it may not be cost effective to place it along the entire southwest border.

"Maybe it makes sense at all parts of the border; maybe it makes sense on some subset of the border; or maybe it doesn't make any sense at all particularly after these first two deployments," the director mused.

At the conclusion of the assessment, DHS intends to determine if the system would truly work, where it would go, and what it's new deployment schedule would be.

"The leaning here is to retain it as an option but an option that makes sense," Borkowski commented. "In the past, we have assumed it made sense everywhere but now we want to check that assumption. So if it's retained as an option then I think it's likely that there would be some additional deployment of it--probably not along the whole southwest border but may be areas along the border where it really is a very good investment."

Meanwhile, border agents have an urgent need for technology to assist them in their jobs, Borkowski stated.

So DHS is not ignoring the present necessity for technological tools along US borders. The department currently has a competitive solicitation for mobile surveillance capabilities open to industry, Borkowski said. And it will continue to pursue alternative technology options from companies other than Boeing as necessary.

Napolitano's assessment may conclude that more immediate solutions are required in more areas, Borkowski said, thus DHS could purchase more localized solutions like mobile surveillance systems instead of an entire SBInet system.

While the assessment does not have a formal timeline, decisions could come within weeks.

The fiscal 2011 budget proposal released Monday by the White House, however, anciticipates continued delays with the deployment of SBInet and cuts its annual funding to $574 million, down from $800 million in fiscal 2010.