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SBInet, the Secure Border Initiative Network, was a program initiated in 2006 for a new integrated system of personnel, infrastructure, technology, and rapid response to secure the northern and southern land borders of the United States. It was a part of
Secure Border Initiative The Secure Border Initiative (SBI) is a program created by Secretary Chertoff of DHS to organize the four operating components of border security: Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship a ...
(SBI), an overarching program of the
United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...
(DHS) to organize the four operating components of border security:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilit ...
(CBP),
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...
,
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...
, and the
United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...
. DHS announced the program's cancellation on Jan. 14, 2011.David Perera
"DHS cancels SBinet"
''FierceGovernmentIT'', Jan. 14, 2011
In August 2008, DHS ordered Boeing to stop SBI work along the border between Arizona and Mexico because CBP had not received the necessary permissions from the
Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
. Boeing told a subcontractor that the suspension of work could last until January 1, 2009. On March 16, 2010, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the DHS was diverting $50 million for the project into other efforts and that all work beyond the current pilot projects have been frozen.


Background

SBInet (a component of SBI) was a program created under U.S. Customs and Border Protection to design a new integrated system of personnel, infrastructure, technology, and rapid response to secure the northern and southern land borders of the U.S. SBInet replaced two former programs, America's Shield Initiative and the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System. Both of these programs had similar goals, but were scrapped due to mismanagement and failure of equipment. To avoid such problems, DHS decided to have development of SBInet managed by a single private contractor.
Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
, holding the primary contract, subcontracting many portions of the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of the program, with Boeing handling the majority of the management aspects. Subcontractors included: *Centech Group *DRS Technologies *Kollsman (a division of
Elbit Systems Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israel-based international defense electronics company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world. The company, which includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries, operates in the areas of aerospace, land ...
) *L-3 Communications Government Services Inc. *L-3 Communication Systems - West *LGS *Perot Systems *Unisys Global Public Sector *USIS *EOD Technology Inc. (Security Personnel)


History of the program

On September 21, 2006 DHS announced the award of the SBInet contract to Boeing. DHS deputy director of homeland security
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
played a large role in the initiation of SBInet, while Greggory L. Giddens served as executive director of the SBI Program Management Office at CBP. Kirk Evans was the first SBInet program manager; on April 11, 2008, he resigned to accept another position within DHS. Five companies competed for the SBInet contract:
Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
,
Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...
,
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...
,
Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...
, and
Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...
. On September 21, 2006, following an intensive and detailed source selection process, DHS announced that it had chosen to award the contract to Boeing. Boeing named Jerry McElwee as SBInet's executive program manager, Tony Swansson as the deputy program manager, and Ilia Rosenberg as the director of technology assessment. In August 2007, McElwee was replaced by a new program manager, Daniel Korte. Boeing planned to have
Project 28 Project 28 is the name given to a U.S. border protection program that runs along a stretch of the US/Mexican border in southern Arizona.Randal C. Archibold"28-Mile Virtual Fence Is Rising Along the Border" ''New York Times'', June 26, 2007 The pro ...
, the first phase of SBInet, operational in June 2007, but ran into software and other technology problems. In early September 2007, with the Project 28 implementation delayed until at least October, Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff Michael Chertoff (born November 28, 1953) is an American attorney who was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security to serve under President George W. Bush. Chertoff also served for one additional day under President Barack Obama. H ...
said at a Congressional hearing, "I am not going to buy something with U.S. government money unless I'm satisfied it works in the real world." He added, "And if it can't be made to work, I'm prepared to go and find something that will be made to work, although I'll obviously be disappointed." Border patrol agents began using the system in December 2007, and the system was officially accepted by DHS in February 2008. Boeing was awarded further contracts to upgrade software and hardware, which it expected to have done by the end of 2008. In February 2008, a
Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...
report detailed problems with the then-deployed technologies. The system was designed to detect a "target" with radar, and then use video cameras to determine whether the radar return came from a person or vehicle, or from some benign source (such as an animal). The GAO reported that radar information was too slow to appear on screens, and was being inappropriately triggered by rain and other weather phenomena. Camera resolution was insufficient for targets beyond 3.1 miles, and the stylus-controlled laptops mounted on moving vehicles were not rugged enough and were difficult to use. These findings were against the prototype system known as "Project 28". They were all addressed before the final production system was ready in 2010.


The contract

SBInet was controlled by an
indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity In U.S. Federal government contracting, IDIQ is an abbreviation of the term indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity. This is a type of contract that provides for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services during a fixed period of time. The lega ...
contract extending through September 30, 2009, with three one-year option periods. The only commitment that DHS was to pay
Project 28 Project 28 is the name given to a U.S. border protection program that runs along a stretch of the US/Mexican border in southern Arizona.Randal C. Archibold"28-Mile Virtual Fence Is Rising Along the Border" ''New York Times'', June 26, 2007 The pro ...
, a 28-mile pilot section of SBInet in the Tucson sector of the Arizona-Mexico border. The cost of this pilot section was estimated at $67 million. The value of Boeing's three-year contract to build SBInet across both the northern and southern borders was estimated by various sources at various times to be between $2 billion and $8 billion. The contract included what DHS called "off-ramps" – milestones where DHS could discontinue the project if it found Boeing's work unacceptable. The contract allowed DHS to acquire certain solutions from a vendor besides Boeing.Robert Brodsky, Zack Phillips and Katherine McIntire Peters
"Big Contracts, Big Problems"
''Government Executive'' magazine, August 15, 2007
The U.S. Army was to conduct an independent assessment of SBInet's interim operating capabilities at the end of the project's first initiative.


Objectives

The goal of SBInet was to secure the border by fulfilling these main objectives: # deter potential illegal border crossers from making the attempt # predict illegal border activities before they occur # detect entries when they occur # identify what the entry is # classify the threat level of the entry before interdiction # track the movements of illegal entrants # provide a means to effectively and efficiently respond to entries # bring interdictions to an appropriate resolution (e.g., identity checks, judicial and administrative actions, deportations, and so forth) In addition, SBInet sought to provide a "common operating picture" of the border environment that could be shared with DHS components and federal, state, and local partners to provide comprehensive situational awareness, improving interoperability. The SBInet contract gave Boeing full responsibility for developing, deploying, and maintaining a system that was able to accomplish these goals.


Requirements

Boeing was required to design, develop, test, integrate, deploy, document and maintain the optimum mix of personnel, technology, infrastructure, and response capability to defend 6,000 miles of border. Boeing was required to manage every aspect of the implementation of SBInet; its job even included less intuitive tasks, such as recommending new paradigms for the way Border Patrol Agents operated, training maintenance personnel to repair their products, and guiding construction of facilities to house additional CBP offices required for SBInet. Additionally, Boeing was required to integrate the program into previously existing infrastructure and equipment systems wherever possible. The pilot section of SBInet was required to be completed and fully operational eight months from the contract signing. , Boeing had missed its June 13 deadline for delivery of the pilot section.


Oversight

The SBInet Program Management Office (PMO), led by the SBInet Program Manager, was responsible for conducting oversight activities such as testing the system's performance in improving the security of the border, examining Boeing's designs to predict and prevent deficiencies, and monitoring the financial efficiency of the project. The PMO included more than two hundred subject matter experts in engineering, program management, budget control, Border Patrol operations, port of entry operations, environmental management, logistics, risk management, and more. Additionally, the PMO engaged the U.S. Army's test and evaluation experts to provide independent evaluation services, to include operational assessments and large-scale operational testing. The PMO was criticized for inadequate staffing, which impeded its effectiveness in the early months of the program. As a result, the PMO rapidly expanded the size and quality of its staff, enabling it to intensify oversight operations.


Technology


Tower system

Towers were meant to be set up along the border, with varying surveillance and communications equipment depending on the climate, terrain, population density, and other factors. Towers were slated to include radar, long-range cameras, broadband wireless access points, thermal imaging capabilities, and motion detectors. SBInet was meant to also include some ground sensors for seismic detection as well.


Command centers

All of the information received by sensors were meant to go to command centers, where a "common operating picture" would have been compiled by CBP and shared with other agencies. The common operating picture would have appeared on computer screens as a geospatial map, where border entries are tracked in real time. Command center personnel were supposed to be able to click on a given entry, view the entry, and assess the threat using the long-range cameras on the towers. They will then dispatch Border Patrol agents accordingly.


Border Patrol response

Border Patrol agents were meant to carry PDAs with
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
capabilities, to allow the command center to track the location of agents interdicting illegal entries and watch the encounter in real time on the common operating picture. Additionally, the PDAs were supposed to have advanced fingerprint identification technology, to allow Border Patrol agents to identify an individual at the interdiction site immediately and the ability to view and control tower cameras from the PDA. In addition, Border Patrol agents were to be given laptops in the patrol car to provide the information necessary to effectively and safely approach a given threat.


Airborne sensors

Airborne sensors on
unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s (UAVs) were meant to fill in gaps in the "virtual fence" in remote areas where building and maintaining towers was impractical. A small UAV called the Skylark operated by a single individual, was considered. The Skylark was made by
Elbit Systems Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israel-based international defense electronics company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world. The company, which includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries, operates in the areas of aerospace, land ...
.


Construction strategy

The towers that were initially to be placed in the pilot section were intended to be mobile, so that they could be moved around to discover optimal placement. Once the optimal placement was determined, they would be replaced with permanent towers, and the mobile towers were to be reused to begin construction on the next section of SBInet in a similar manner. At completion, Boeing estimated that it would use approximately 1,800 towers to create its "virtual fence" along the borders. In addition to towers and technology systems, SBInet would include the construction of fences, vehicle barriers and border roads.


Criticism

The SBInet program was criticized by media and political sources. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Me.), Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI.), and Senator George Voinovich (R-Oh.), expressed concern that the program faced significant management challenges that could undermine its effectiveness. In anticipation of the department's final approval of Project 28 and the planned investment of at least $64 million for the next phase of SBInet's development, the senators sent a letter to DHS secretary Michael Chertoff, questioning CBP's failure to establish firm operational requirements before initiating Project 28, and asking whether such requirements would be addressed in the next phase. The senators also cited an over-reliance on contractors as one of their chief concerns, raising issues about whether DHS could properly oversee the project. Jerry McElwee, a Boeing vice president, said that the June 2007 version of Project 28 was "a demonstration of our approach and a test bed for incorporating improvements" to SBInet. Under heavy scrutiny for costs and effectiveness, Boeing reiterated that P28 was a test program. In June, 2010 a General Accounting Office report summarized severe criticism of the project stated at a congressional committee hearing. Janice Kephart of the
Center for Immigration Studies The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an anti-immigration think tank and a SPLC designated hate group. It favors far lower immigration numbers, and produces analyses to further those views. The CIS was founded by historian Otis L. Graha ...
defended SBINet, writing, "SBInet is still operational where it was deployed, despite the widespread notion that the light switch was turned off on both the Tucson and Ajo sectors due to cancellation. The reason SBInet is still operating is because it works."


Cancellation

Once DHS Secretary
Janet Napolitano Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and university administrator who served as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and third United States secretary of homeland security from 2009 to 20 ...
ordered an assessment of the project in January 2010, the future of the project was uncertain and in March 2010 DHS froze additional funding for anything beyond already begun initial deployments. On Jan. 14, 2011, DHS said it would redirect funding originally intended for SBInet—including fiscal 2011 SBInet funds—to a new border security technology effort. "SBInet cannot meet its original objective of providing a single, integrated border security technology solution," Napolitano said in a prepared statement. "DHS briefed Congress today on my decision to end SBInet as originally conceived and on a new path forward for security technology along the Southwest border. "The new border security technology plan will utilize existing, proven technology tailored to the distinct terrain and population density of each border region, including commercially available mobile surveillance systems, unmanned aircraft systems, thermal imaging devices, and tower-based remote video surveillance systems. Where appropriate, this plan will also incorporate already existing elements of the former SBInet program that have proven successful, such as stationary radar and infrared and optical sensor towers," the statement said. The cancellation was welcomed by some members of Congress. Rep.
Bennie Thompson Bennie Gordon Thompson (born January 28, 1948) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, Thompson has been the chair of the Committee on Homeland Security since 2019 and from ...
(D-Miss.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also issued a statement describing SBInet as a "grave and expensive disappointment" that cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion for only 53 miles of coverage. "I am glad that DHS and Customs and Border Protection are finally listening to what we have been saying for years – that the sheer size and variations of our borders show us a one-stop solution has never been best," Thompson wrote. "I applaud them for taking this critical step toward using a more tailored technologically based approach to securing our nation’s borders." Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) who chaired the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also supported Napolitano’s decision. "The Secretary’s decision to terminate SBInet ends a long-troubled program that spent far too much of the taxpayers’ money for the results it delivered," Lieberman said. "The department’s decision to use technology based on the particular security needs of each segment of the border is a far wiser approach, and I hope it will be more cost effective."Boeing's SBInet contract gets the axe


References


External links

* {{Official website, http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/sbi/, SBI official website, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
"SBInet Expenditure Plan Needs to Better Support Oversight and Accountability" (pdf)
U.S.
Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...
, February 2007 *http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&Affiliation=C&PressRelease_id=e3910540-0678-4f9d-9143-86513c10ff5c&Month=1&Year=2008 United States Department of Homeland Security