Expect More Border TFRs

Why does this news report differ from all the others on this topic?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/news_sum...ummary_21.html
The Department of Homeland Security awarded Boeing a contract
today for a virtual fence on part of the Mexican border. It will
use cameras, sensors and unmanned planes to monitor a 28-mile
stretch in Arizona. The contract is worth $67 million.

Has Boeing won multiple DHS contracts?


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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...bborder20.html

Boeing wins first $80 million piece of border contract
By Lara Jakes Jordan

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Boeing Co. will be awarded an $80 million government
contract to provide new high-tech ways to catch illegal immigrants
trying to cross U.S. land borders, officials said today.

The contract is the first part of a multibillion-dollar Homeland
Security Department plan to help secure the Mexican and Canadian
borders. The final bill's total is unknown, a department official
said, because it hinges largely on whether Congress will approve
spending about $1 billion to build a fence on the Mexican border.
Until then, the contract will be given to Boeing in phases, the
department official said.

The Boeing contract was expected to be announced Thursday, according
to a congressional aide and an official of the agency who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the department had not yet made its
announcement.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Jarrod Agen would not comment.
"Legally we are restricted from discussing details of the contract
until the award is officially announced," Agen said today.

Boeing spokesman Dan Beck also declined to comment pending a formal
announcement from the government.

Chicago-based Boeing was among several major defense companies
competing for the job. While other companies' proposals relied more
heavily on using flying drones to patrol the border, Boeing focused on
a network of 1,800 high-tech towers, equipped with cameras and motion
detectors, that could feed live information to Border Patrol agents.

The contract, part of the Secure Border Initiative, is the
government's latest attempt to use advanced technology to solve the
illegal immigration problem, which lawmakers have called a national
security issue and which has given new attention in light of the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Homeland Security gave companies chasing the contract — including
Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. — unusual freedom to
come up with their own ideas for how best to apply new and developing
technologies to the problem.


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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._boeing20.html

Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - Page updated at 02:39 PM

Boeing snags contract to protect U.S. borders
By Griff Witte

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Boeing has won a contract to revamp how the United States
guards about 6,000 miles of border in an attempt to curb illegal
immigration, congressional sources said Tuesday.

The Chicago-based company's proposal, estimated to be worth as much as
$2.5 billion over the next four years, relied heavily on a network of
1,800 towers — some of which exist, but most of which would be erected
along the borders with Mexico and Canada.

Each tower would be equipped with sensors, including cameras and heat
and motion detectors.

Boeing's efforts would be the basis of the government's latest attempt
to control its borders. The contract, part of the Secure Border
Initiative and known as SBInet, again will test the ability of
technology to solve a problem lawmakers have said is critical to
national security.

This time, the private sector is having an unusually large say in how
to do it.

Boeing sold its plan to the Department of Homeland Security as less
risky and less expensive than competing proposals that would have
relied heavily on drones for routine surveillance.

Boeing plans limited use of small, unmanned aerial vehicles that could
be launched from Border Patrol trucks when needed to help pursue
suspects.

The system is to be installed first along the 1,952-mile Mexican
border in an area south of Tucson, Ariz., known as a key crossing
point for illegal immigrants.

The company has said it can deploy the system on both borders within
three years.

The public announcement of the award is planned for Thursday.
Congressional and industry sources Tuesday confirmed Boeing had beaten
four other companies in one of the most closely watched, intensely
fought contract competitions this year.

The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the competition.

Homeland Security spokesman Larry Orluskie said the department is
"really close" to making an award.

Boeing officials declined to comment, pending official notification.

In an interview this month, Boeing executive Wayne Esser said that
despite the company's aviation experience, it wanted to keep its
border-surveillance systems on the ground. "The aerial platform just
goes off the map from a cost standpoint," he said.

Homeland Security has been criticized severely for initiatives that
either have failed or far exceeded their budgets. In one case, cameras
installed on the borders broke down in bad weather.

"The administration has spent $429 million of the taxpayers' money to
try and secure our borders with two already abandoned border-security
programs," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. He expressed concern the
same thing will happen to SBInet.

Mindful of that record, Boeing emphasized that all its technology has
worked. "The low-risk approach is probably going to carry weight
here," Esser said.

From the beginning, department officials told industry leaders they
wanted immediate results.

The contract proposed giving the private sector wide latitude in
helping Customs and Border Protection figure out the right combination
of technology, infrastructure and personnel needed to stop immigrants,
terrorists and criminals from crossing into the United States
illegally.

Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Michael Jackson said this year he
wanted the companies "to come back and tell us how to do our
business."

SBInet has been regarded all year by many industry executives as a
critical prize, because Homeland Security's budget continues to boom,
and no single company has emerged to dominate the market.

There was pitched competition among defense companies for the
contract. The contest included five prime contractors — Lockheed
Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Ericsson and Boeing.

Each rounded up dozens of subcontractors, bringing a wide variety of
defense and technology firms into the competition.

Boeing's subcontractors include a Washington, D.C.-based division of
L-3 Communications Holdings and a Reston, Va.-based division of
information-technology firm Unisys.

Boeing has been one of the Defense Department's largest contractors
for decades and has been trying to win Homeland Security awards since
the department was created after the 9/11 attacks.

In pursuing the award, Boeing touted its work installing
explosive-detection systems at more than 400 airports in less than six
months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

But that contract was criticized by Homeland Security's inspector
general's office, which found Boeing received $49 million in excess
profit on a deal that was supposed to be worth $508 million but
ballooned to $1.2 billion.

Investigators also found Boeing had subcontracted out 92 percent of
the work, and that the machines had high false-alarm rates.

The company disputed those findings.

Winning SBInet is considered an important victory for Boeing as it
seeks to overcome a number of setbacks, including a scandal in which a
Pentagon official admitted favoring the company in exchange for a job,
and the loss this summer in the competition to build the next U.S.
manned spacecraft.

----------------------------------------------


BOEING CO. has won a $2.1 billion contract to help the Department
of Homeland Security beef up security along more than 7,500
miles of U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, The Washington
Post reported. The newspaper said several congressional and
industry sources confirmed that Boeing had defeated four other
companies in the intensely fought contract competition. A
public announcement was planned on Wednesday, the report said.
Boeing, teamed with L-3 COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS INC., UNISYS
CORP. and others in its bid, which relies on more than 300
radar towers along the borders. Some would be supplemented by
cameras developed by Israel's ELBIT that can spot people at up
to 14 kilometers and vehicles at up to 20 kilometers. In its
pitch for the contract, Boeing's SBInet program director Jerry
McElwee stressed the company's low-cost, best-value approach
and said the company's integration of other major programs,
including the Army's Future Combat Systems, gave it the needed
experience. The Boeing team competed against U.S. defense
contractors, LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP., NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. and
RAYTHEON CO., as well as Sweden's Ericsson for the contract.
(Reuters 11:51 PM ET 09/19/2006)

Mo
http://q1.schwab.com/s/r?l=248&a=126...a&s=rb060 919
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On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:09:30 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote in :


For ~$588,000/mile annually, it would be interesting to know the
specifics of exactly what Boeing has been contracted to supply.

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The Boeing Company http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/index.html

Boeing Team Awarded SBInet Contract by Department of Homeland Security
* Three year effort will strengthen border security

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 21, 2006 -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) has awarded an industry team led by The Boeing Company a
contract [in the amount of $67-million] for the department's
technology component of its Secure Border Initiative (SBI) effort,
SBInet. The contract work [UAV operations along 38 miles of Arizona
border] will be performed over a three-year period with three one-year
options.

The Boeing SBInet team was selected over a field of major domestic and
international teams in a competition that began earlier this year.
Boeing's solution concentrated on using proven, low risk,
off-the-shelf technology to ensure SBInet will significantly improve
the availability of information and tools to Border Patrol agents so
they can better detect, identify, classify and resolve illegal border
activity by those who pose a threat to the United States.

"Being selected to support Customs and Border Protection as they
secure our nation's borders is a testament to the strength of our team
and the expertise, talent and focus that we bring to this task," said
George Muellner, president of Boeing Advanced Systems for Boeing
Integrated Defense Systems. "Our team is absolutely committed to
making SBInet a success, and we are ready to respond immediately to
our customer in the detailed design and deployment of this critical
solution to enhance our nation's border security system."

The Boeing SBInet core team includes:

* Centech -- Arlington, Va.
* DRS Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group -- Palm Bay, Fla.
* Kollsman Inc. (an Elbit Systems of America company) --
Merrimack, N.H.
* L-3 Government Services Inc. -- Washington, D.C.
* L-3 Communication Systems West -- Salt Lake City, Utah
* Lucent Technologies -- Murray Hill, N.J.
* Perot Systems -- Plano, Texas
* Unisys Global Public Sector -- Reston, Va.
* USIS -- Washington, D.C.

In the coming months, Boeing will issue subcontracts to many
additional companies including small and minority-owned businesses, to
bring the best available solutions to SBInet.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems
http://www.boeing.com/ids/index.html is one of the world's largest
space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing
Integrated Defense Systems is a $30.8 billion business. It provides
network-centric system solutions to its global military, government
and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance systems; the world's largest military
aircraft manufacturer; the world's largest satellite manufacturer; a
foremost developer of advanced concepts and technologies; a leading
provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator
for U.S. missile defense; NASA's largest contractor; and a global
leader in sustainment solutions and launch services.
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