Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has awarded FLIR Corp. [FLIR] and Griffon Corp. [GFF] each contract to supply the agency’s Border Patrol with mobile surveillance towers and equipment for use along the nation’s southwest border.
FLIR, through its acquisition last year of ICx Technologies, received a potential five-year, $101.9 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract for the Mobile Surveillance Capability (MSC). Griffon’s Telephonics business unit received a potential five-year, $45.3 million ID/IQ contract for MSC.
FLIR will deliver 33 of its systems under a $26 million task order in the first year and Griffon 15 units under a $12.8 million task order, CBP tells TR2. Initially deliveries are expected to begin in three to four months and will consist of two systems from each vendor for testing.
The exact locations of the deployments are up to the Border Patrol based upon their operational needs, CBP says.
The first-year task orders are funded with Recovery Act monies.
An MSC system consists of a mobile tower equipped with radar, day/night cameras, laser designator, a command and control system, and a power system mounted on a government furnished truck. The MSC’s are operated in a stand-alone mode, each system having its own display and operator controls. The systems are not networked into a larger common operating picture.
According to CBP briefing slides on the MSC program from Jan. 2010, the MSCs will provide the Border Patrol with automated wide-area surveillance, including detection, identification and tracking, in real-time in daylight and at night throughout the year.
The MSC systems are being acquired to help fill gaps in the surveillance architecture left open by delays in the electronic fence portion of the Secure Border Initiative being integrated by Boeing [BA].