The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will contract out for an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) for its struggling next-generation bio-detection system and also redo a mission needs evaluation of the program as well as conduct a cost-benefit analysis but at the same time it plans to go forward with a solicitation for a competitive ward that would lead to a contract for further testing and possibly production of the Generation-3 BioWatch system, according to government officials.
The DHS Acquisition Review Board (ARB) met on Aug. 16 and directed that a solicitation go out for an AoA of the Gen-3 system to be conducted by an independent third party, Alexander Garza, head of the department’s Office of Health Affairs, tells a House Homeland Security panel. In addition, the ARB directed that a more rigorous Mission Needs Statement (MNS) for the project be done as well as a comprehensive cost and benefit analysis, he says.
DHS conducted an AoA and completed an MNS in 2009, but those were done on an expedited basis and did not follow the proper acquisition practices that are part of the department’s guidelines, William Jenkins, director of Homeland Security Issues at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), tells the panel.
The ARB also directed the release of the Gen-3 RFP to mitigate further program delays, Garza says. However, he points out that the release of the RFP “does not necessarily guarantee the release of any performance contracting or testing.” He adds that no contract will be let and no performance testing will be done until the required acquisition documents are completed.
“At the end of the day,” Garza says, “we’re going to be aligned with what the GAO is saying.”
A DHS spokesman says that the cost-benefit analysis, AoA and MNS will be completed before an ARB meeting slated for late FY ’13.
A draft RFP for Gen-3 phase two is slated for this fall with the final RFP in early calendar year 2013. The RFP is for Phase II, Stage one, which is for performance testing of production level units. Stage two would be operational test and evaluation.
The Gen-3 program has been beset with numerous delays due in large part because the next-generation technology would provide a laboratory in a box that samples and automatically detects and communicates the results to public health and other relevant authorities.
The current BioWatch system, Generation-2, requires manual retrieval of aerosol samples. The technology is deployed at over 30 urban areas around the United States. The manual retrieval and laboratory processing of samples is time consuming, resulting in a collection to detection time-cycle of 12 to 26 hours. The Gen-3 goal is four to six hours.
Pointing to a key benefit of Gen-3 over Gen-2 is the dramatic time savings, Garza says. That time savings means savings in lives, he adds.
Another key benefit of Gen-3 is that the system is designed to be deployed indoors and out, Garza says. The Gen-2 systems are only located outdoors, he says, and the indoor environment is another potential threat vector for a bio-attack.
The forthcoming RFP will be for a full and open competition and DHS is not wed to a particular technology, Garza says.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] completed field testing for OHA of a Gen-3 system earlier this year, the only contractor to advance to that stage of the initial competition.
GAO earlier this year pegged the 20-year life-cycle costs of Gen-3 at about $5.8 billion. The watchdog agency also says full deployment of the system isn’t slated until 2022.
Current Upgrades
To improve the currently deployed Generation-2 BioWatch systems, DHS is working with the Defense Department to roll out more sensitive assays this fall so that “hits” on harmless subspecies of naturally occurring biological materials such as anthrax do not require a more extensive laboratory analysis and subsequent discussions to determine that there is no threat, Garza says.
He tells the panel that when BioWatch was rolled out in 2003 there was no test to distinguish between the different subspecies of organisms and, in fact, it was a surprise to many authorities when laboratory testing would detect these organisms that are “close cousins” of biological threats. These subspecies that have been detected are “of no consequential public health or terrorism event,” he says.
The soon-to-be optimized Gen-2 systems will be part of the forthcoming AoA, Garza says. However, he says, that the driver behind Gen-3 is the need for automated and much faster alerting of bio-terror events, which the next-generation of detection technology offers versus the Gen-2 systems.