Border Protector Michael J. Fisher - KMI Media Group

ProteCting our nation’s BorDers through
the seCure BorDer initiative.
There are also other
CBP programs in the works for
the Southwest border—which would deploy
mobile truck mounted radars and cameras, remote video
surveillance systems, and unattended ground sensors—that are in
various stages of development.
The concept behind IFT is to use radars and cameras to deliver
a one-two punch to illegal border traffic. The radar would detect the
movement of objects of interest in the border area and cue the cameras
to zoom in to take a closer look.
“We expect to be able to identify and characterize the moving
objects,” said Borkowski. “Is it one person or a group of people? Are
they carrying anything? This way we can tell border agents what to
expect so that they can prioritize their responses.”
General Dynamics faced many of the same challenges facing CBP
with SBInet when it deployed the Rescue 21 system on behalf of the
United States Coast Guard. The Rescue 21 system is a network of 32
Coast Guard sector command centers, 167 stations,
and over 260 fixed towers located along U.S. waterways
and the shores of the Great Lakes, Hawaii, Guam, the
U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Using direction
finding technologies and digital communications, the
Coast Guard is able to rapidly respond to emergency
calls from mariners while coordinating with federal,
state and local law enforcement and first responders.
The system supports the Coast Guard’s homeland
security missions that include drug interdiction,
By Peter BuxBaum
BCD CorresPonDent
control system
that provides users with
situational awareness derived from
data transmitted by those tower sensors.
The SRI system, dubbed TerraSight, “presents critical
information from widely distributed sensors in one three-dimensional
common operating picture,” said Mark Clifton, vice president of the
products and services division at SRI. “TerraSight has been deployed
at over 300 sites in Afghanistan and Iraq. The tower sensors look out
over long distances to detect people coming and going, what they look
like, and what they are doing. They operate in a similar environment
to the U.S. Southwest.”
TerraSight is able to take data transmitted from a
variety of sensors and present the user with a picture
of the surroundings in a Google Earth-like view. “We
can use data from any sensor that provides a georeferenced
location,” said Clifton. “This can include radar
data and camera images from tower-mounted sensors
as well as data from unattended ground sensors and
images and video transmitted from unmanned aerial
systems.”
“Elbit has a long track record of providing border
defense readiness, marine environmental protection
security solutions in places like Israel,” said Kesting.
and law enforcement.
Mark Clifton
“We have a proven architecture that would be able
“The integrated fixed towers had to be linked
to host all the sensing technologies for IFT radars
across thousands of miles of shoreline to provide a seamless network,” and cameras. All of these are tied together in a common operating
said Norton. “All the sites were at different elevations, in varied ter- picture.”
rain and with radically different environmental conditions. At some Elbit’s architecture is built on commercial standards that allow
sites, it was necessary for the towers to blend in with the surround- for flexibility as to the sensors that are deployed on the system.
ings, even if it meant making a tower look like a tree, or part of a “Sensor suppliers are starting to build systems based on these open
lighthouse.”
standards,” said Kesting. “We are in a position to provide a solution
Rescue 21 was initiated to replace the Coast Guard’s legacy that meets current needs and evolves or grows with the mission or
National Distress and Response System. Improvements implemented as threats change. The open system architecture allows various tech-
by Rescue 21 include enhanced voice clarity, direction-finding capanologies to be plugged in as needed. These are the capabilities most
bilities, expanded coverage to at least 20 nautical miles offshore, and relevant to IFT.”
interoperability among federal, state and local agency systems.
Kesting confirmed that Elbit will be competing for the IFT con-
“The Rescue 21 program is a great example of a proven solution tract. Clifton and Norton indicated that their companies are consider-
of integrated fixed towers,” said Norton. “For more than a decade, ing doing the same.
we have been working with the Department of Homeland Security CBP’s RFP is structured as a wish list of sensors and capabilities
to assist the Coast Guard in investigating distress calls, responding that the agency would like to see in IFT but, consistent with today’s
to search and rescue cases, and constantly monitoring over 40,600 tight budgets, also with an indication of what is doable. “We’ve indi-
miles of coastline.”
cated the range we’d like to see in the radars and cameras, but also
U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq have constructed networks of what we’re willing to settle for,” said Borkowski. “We’ve described our
surveillance towers around forward operating bases analogous to that dream house but we’ve also let bidders know what we’re willing to
contemplated under IFT. SRI International delivered a command and buy.” O
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