Getting Defensive By Building Borders
Friday, May 19, 2006SUSIE GHARIB: The Federal government is launching a $2 billion project to secure the nation`s borders known as the "strategic border initiative," the idea is to create a virtual fence along 6,000 miles of U.S. land borders. Major defense firms, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are gearing up to develop those new security systems. The large firms are expected to partner with smaller firms to help supply the technology. Stephanie Dhue looks at how the new system could work.
STEPHANIE DHUE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The major defense firms are adapting their military equipment like this Northrop Grumman global hawk plane to be used for civilian surveillance. The idea is to watch for movement along the border. That has the potential to bring tens of millions of dollars in new business to companies like Ipix. Stuart Claggett oversees sales for the company. Ipix sells specialized cameras that deliver a 360 degree surveillance picture. They can be mounted at border checkpoints or on unmanned aerial vehicles called UAVs for a wide area view.
STUART CLAGGETT, EXECUTIVE VP, IPIX CORPORATION: This would be sitting in the belly of a UAV type apparatus
DHUE: Now what would that cost?
CKAGGETT: This is basically, with all 270 elements to do like a 10k by 10k area at 25,000 feet, this would be in the $2 million range.
DHUE: Securing the border is about more than just surveillance and physical barriers. It will also involve controlling the identities of people who come into the country. Joseph Atick is the CEO of Identix. His company has developed equipment that would let a border patrol officer capture pictures and fingerprints in the field and check them against a database.
JOSEPH ATICK, CEO, IDENTIX: Right there in the field without having to take the individual back to the station or back to the processing center, I`m able to determine if this is an honest individual that I should just let them go or somebody that I need to detain or I need to take other actions with.
DHUE: But some lawmakers who hold the purse strings are skeptical the new border security initiative will yield better results than previous efforts. Ipix`s Claggett admits the price tag for an integrated system is going to be a major hurdle.
CLAGGETT: I`m not sure the taxpayers have the stomach for making that $2 billion actually appear in the congressional budget lines, but, this is -- to bring the type of SBI net that most people are talking about to the field, I mean this is really -- it`s a military style type communications center and that`s going to cost a lot of money.
DHUE: The Department of Homeland Security is expected to award the strategic border initiative contract in September. The new system should then be up and running by early next year. Stephanie Dhue, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.
