It involves the placement of 9 high-tech surveillance towers that monitor activity using radar, high-resolution cameras, and wireless networking, looking for incursions to report to the Border Patrol.
As a result, the deployment of about 100 miles (160 km) of virtual fence near Tucson, Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas is now projected to be completed by the end of 2011, rather than 2008.
[6] In a report in February 2007, the Government Accountability Office said that Congress needed to keep a tight rein on the program, because, it said, "SBInet runs the risk of not delivering promised capabilities and benefits on time and within budget.
[7] The four primary components of the system are the sensor towers, the P28 "Common Operating Picture" (COP), enhanced communications, and upgraded agent vehicles [5] which include a laptop computer and a satellite phone.
[5] Each of the 98-foot (30 m)-high towers has radar (MSTAR), infrared cameras and other sensors, and data-processing and communications equipment to distribute information to control centers, mobile units, agent vehicles and other law enforcement employees.
While Boeing considers the list of subcontractors to be an industrial secret, known subcontractors include Booz Allen Hamilton; Centech, DRS Technologies; Kollsman, Inc.; LGS, L-3 Communications Government Services; Perot Systems, Pinkerton Government Services; Power Contracting, Inc. Reconnaissance Group; Sandia National Laboratories; the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University; and Unisys.
"We chose the most difficult, highest-trafficked piece of Arizona because we wanted to take on the challenges that we would have to take on someday," said Brian Seagrave, vice president for border security at Unisys Corporation, the company that is providing the information systems expertise.
Dr. Kirk Evans, the SBInet program manager at CBP, said that "The tower and its components functioned as expected, and we are confident that the design is repeatable for deployment along the border.
[6] In mid-July, a DHS spokesman said that programmers were working overtime to make sure the radars, cameras and sensors properly send information to computers in the two command centers and to laptops in Border Patrol vehicles.
[11] However, in September 2007, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said he expected operational testing to finish by the end of the year, a period of less than three months, assuming that the system did go "live" sometime in October.
Part of the next phase involves upgrading the Common Operating Picture (COP) system to display real-time information from the radars, cameras and ground sensors that were installed along the borders.
[20] In February 2008, U.S. Representative Chris Carney, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Management, Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, said the system "works about 30 percent of the time".