Border Protector Michael J. Fisher - KMI Media Group

The Department of Homeland Security hopes to make
two to three firm-fixed-price awards for demonstration of
a wide area aerial surveillance system (WAASS). WAASS’s
primary objective is persistent, long-term surveillance of
urban and rural terrain of at least 16 square kilometers.
John Appleby, WAASS program manager at DHS, said
that separate firms may supply competitive applications,
and these may apply to both land and marine surveillance,
although the priority is land surveillance. “They
may overlap or one may be land and one may be marine.”
After award, DHS will field-test applications, perhaps
in several phases. “This is an operational test, not
developmental,” Appleby emphasized. Then DHS would
“socialize” the applications with important units, such
as Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast
Guard (USCG).
Important criteria for selection include quality of
technology and ease of adaptation. “It must be easy
to insert into our data management system, which is
already in place,” Appleby stressed. “Level of effort for
fielding is also important, as DHS wants to field WAASS
soon. We do not want something that will take four to
five years. We want operation in a year or two, something
good but not a Cadillac, and then we can improve it in
the future.”
Cost is also important, so using military or off-theshelf
components would be helpful.
The military uses large and high-definition images,
which require huge databases and data-transmission
capabilities. “They have lots of people to do quick-turnaround
analytics,” Appleby noted. “We are constrained
by budgets and do not have as many people.” DHS also
wants to do forensic analysis, analyzing images after capture.
“So it would help if there is automated software and
streamlined data management.”
DHS hoped to issue the request for proposal in
mid-May 2012 and award contracts by late summer or
early fall. “There is lots of pressure to get it fielded in
a year or two, so we will tend to look at mature technologies,
already used by other agencies or at a high
level of reliability,” Appleby said. “We are hoping it will
not cost many millions.” There will be no set-aside
for small business as there are already so many other
parameters.
WAASS must integrate with current DHS capabilities,
including USCG capabilities and DHS cameras and imagers
on poles. “It might cue these sensors,” Appleby said.
WAASS will look for illegal intrusions by humans,
vehicles and other equipment, detecting these and helping
DHS decide if intrusions require response or cueing
other sensors. A demonstration was done with a team led
by Logos Technologies and including L-3 Communications,
which detected and helped send back a thousand
illegal immigrants in one week.
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