Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday delivered its fiscal year 2025 budget request to Congress, proposing no funds for non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems used to scan vehicles and cargo at land ports of entry, and a lower funding for sensor systems that surveil the border between ports of entry.
CBP in FY ’24 asked Congress to provide $305.4 million for its NII technologies, including drive through portals that allow passenger vehicles and cargo trucks to pass through customs checkpoints at slow speeds with the occupants still inside, and at mail facilities to inspect packages and parcels entering the U.S. The primary focus of the FY ’24 request, which has yet to be acted on by Congress, is fentanyl detection.
The Biden administration is also seeking $849 million for NII systems in a supplemental request sent to Congress in October 2023 that includes billions of dollars for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The Senate this year followed with a $758.5 million proposal for border security technology in the supplemental, divided between $424.5 million for NII, $260 million for other border technologies, and $74 million to acquire and deploy air assets.
The House so far has shown no interest in considering either the administration’s or the Senate’s supplemental bills.
CBP has awarded contracts to Astrophysics, Leidos [LDOS], OSI Systems [OSIS], and Smiths Detection for the drive-through NII systems.
CBP’s FY ’25 request for security technologies between ports of entry includes $62 million under the Integrated Surveillance Towers program, which consolidates prior Boder Patrol surveillance tower systems into a single program structure. In FY ’24, CBP requested $178 million for the IST effort, including $136 million for new towers and $38 million to sustain existing ones.
Within the IST program, CBP acquires short-range Autonomous Surveillance Towers from Anduril Industries and last September awarded separate contracts to Advanced Technology Systems Company, General Dynamics [GD], and Elbit Systems [ESLT] for the Consolidated Tower & Surveillance Equipment (CTSE) effort, which are medium- and long-range surveillance towers.
CBP budget documents say the $62 million IST acquisition request will include upgrades for 10 Remote Video Surveillance Systems, which are provided by GD, replacement of 15 obsolete radar systems on Elbit-built Integrated Fixed Towers, and deployment of 15 CTSE towers. The documents also say that FY ’24 funding will help procure 58 ASTs, which would bring operations deployments to 325 by the end of September.
CBP is also seeking $25 million for a common operating picture in FY ’25, $41 million less than requested in FY ’24. Previous funding is expected to result in completing integration of the COP, leading to an initial operating capability for the system that will give the Border Patrol a central capability to manage and control individual sensors.
The agency is also requesting $40.1 million for various other border security technologies, including the Mobile Surveillance Capability-Lite and the Border Enforcement Coordination Network.