As a program, SBInet may be dead, but the concept of a virtual border fence based on multi-sensor, integrated fixed towers feeding information into a common operating picture remains apparently alive.

DHS issued Jan. 18 a request for information calling for industry ideas on an integrated fixed tower system "equipped with a suite of sensors for persistent wide area surveillance and supporting power and communications."

The system would have a common operating picture composed of inputs of "one to several" towers, and also be able to automatically identify items of interest such as humans, animals and vehicles.

The common operating picture "display will present [item of interest] information in a manner that enables a COP operator to manage the IoIs across an [area of interest], incorporating feeds from legacy systems where possible," the RFI adds.

"There is no intent to develop any items or systems under this program," the RFI states.

SBInet, of course, was the recently-canceled DHS effort to blanket U.S. borders with a networked chain of radars, cameras, and heat and motion detectors, allowing border patrol agents to work from a common operational picture. SBInet has cost $1.9 billion so far, or 564 percent more than the initially projected cost, according to a Government Accountability Office estimate. Program officials instantiated SBInet technology across 53 miles of Arizona's Mexican border. The prime contractor was Boeing (NYSE: BA), which received a contract in September 2006.

When announcing the program's cancelation, DHS officials said they will mount a new effort that "will utilize existing, proven technology tailored to the distinct terrain and population density of each border region."

If a pattern of DHS canceling a high-profile high-tech border technology effort and then mounting a new effort it says will be based on proven technology seems familiar, that's because it happened at least once before, when DHS canceled in 2006 a program called the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System (later called the America's Shield Initiative). When announcing SBInet, DHS emphasized that SBInet would utilize commercial-off-the-shelf technology, an assumption that a June 2010 DHS inspector general report said "ultimately proved to be wrong."

For more:
- go to the son of SBInet RFI on FBO.gov
- download the June 2010 DHS IG report (.pdf)

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