CBP Awards Sierra Nevada $48M for Two MEA Aircraft
Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) has received a $48.3 million contract from Customs and Border Protection to provide two more Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA), which are equipped with sensors to provide detection, tracking and surveillance operations in challenging regions for border security operations. So far, SNC has delivered 21 MEA aircraft since winning the contract in 2009 and the latest award brings total orders to 29 aircraft. The twin turboprop is a variant of SNC’s Scorpion aircraft, a missionized version of the King Air 350/360, and includes active and passive sensors, technical collection equipment and satellite communications capabilities. Work on the contract is done at SNC’s facilities in Hagerstown, Md.
CBP Extends PAE’s Aviation Support Contract Following Protest
The ongoing protest-laden saga of Customs and Border Protections’ aviation support contract continues. The agency has awarded PAE a potential six-month extension of the company’s aircraft maintenance and logistics services contract following a protest earlier this month by PAE of CBP’s $1.3 billion award to Amentum’s DynCorp business unit earlier this year. DynCorp won the contract in 2018 but a protest by losing bidders PAE and Vertex Aerospace forced a recompete that was won by PAE in May 2020. After another protest, CBP earlier this year awarded the contract again to DynCorp, which is now part of Amentum. The value of the extension, which has two three-month option periods, wasn’t disclosed. The extension runs from April 1 to Sept. 30. Under the potential 10-year National Aircraft Maintenance and Logistics Support Services contract, the contractor provides services to CBP’s fleet of 211 fixed- and rotary-wing assets, excluding p-3 and unmanned aircraft systems, which are serviced under separate contracts.
OSI Systems Nabs $15M Order for Airport Security Systems
OSI Systems [OSIS] says its Rapiscan Systems division has received a $15 million order from an international airport to provide its RTT 110 checked baggage explosive detection systems, as well as its 920CT checkpoint computed tomography and Orion X-Ray carry-on baggage scanners, Itemiser 5X trace detection units, and Metor walk-through metal detectors. The customer wasn’t disclosed.
CWMD Office to Award FLIR Contract for Backpack Radiation Detection Systems
The Department of Homeland Security Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office is awarding FLIR Systems [FLIR] a contract to provide 85 F900 Findwear Helium-3 Alternative Implementation Backpack (HAIBP) systems, which are replacing the currently deployed Human Portable Radiation Detection System backpack systems that use Helium 3 to detect neutron radiation. The CWMD Office is exploring alternative technologies to He-3 based systems due to national shortages of He-3. The HAIBP also expands the capability of the wearable wide-area search system by including radionuclide identification and data transfer. The office says that combining these capabilities into a single solution shortens the amount of time required for alarm adjudication and potentially reduces the number of detection systems required in the field. The new systems will replace the legacy backpacks for the Transportation Security Administration and the Mobile Detection Deployment Program. The HAIBP system was originally developed by Germany’s Target Systemelektronik GmbH and sold to FLIR, which now manufactures it. The contract is in the process of novating from Target to FLIR. The value of the award was redacted.
DHS S&T, CISA Make Small R&D Awards for Mobile Network Security
The Department of Homeland Security has awarded two more small research and development (R&D) contracts to two companies for mobile network security, marking the last two awards under Secure and Resilient Mobile Network Infrastructure (SRMNI) project. The awards are to GuidePoint Security, $915,000 for the Mobile Network Traffic Visibility for the Enterprise, and AppCensus, Inc., $1.2 million for Mobile Traffic Intelligence at Scale. GuidePoint, which is based in Northern Virginia, will use a FedRAMP security-as-a-service platform provided by Zscaler to model a trusted internet connection-based architecture aimed at improving security of federal systems and data that are accessed through government-managed mobile devices. The award to California-based AppCensus will build on the company’s platform to monitor traffic from mobile systems and apps to identify risks and detect and filter sensitive traffic before it leaves mobile devices, DHS said. The awards were made by the Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate and address the top mobile cyber security priorities of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In February, DHS S&T awarded seven R&D contracts to five companies and the Univ. of Florida and Texas A&M Univ. under the SRMNI program in support of CISA’s efforts to secure the mobile traffic supply chain and critical mobile network infrastructure, including building security into the emerging 5G network. In addition to the colleges, those awards were to 4K Solutions, Commdex, LLC, Aether Argus Inc., Red Balloon Security, and AdaptiveMobile Security Inc.
DHS Awards BioSpatial $4M for Biosurveillance Data Subscription
The Department of Homeland Security Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office has awarded BioSpatial, Inc. a $3.8 million contract in support of the National Biosurveillance Integration Center. BioSpatial will provide a Rapid Response Bio-surveillance Data Subscription that includes access to nationwide pre-hospital human healthcare data. The contract has a base-year and four one-year options.