[1] In August 2008, DHS ordered Boeing to stop SBI work along the border between Arizona and Mexico because CBP had not received the necessary permissions from the Department of the Interior.
[4] SBInet (a component of SBI) was a program created under U.S. Customs and Border Protection to design a new integrated system of personnel, infrastructure, technology, and rapid response to secure the northern and southern land borders of the U.S. SBInet replaced two former programs, America's Shield Initiative and the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System.
In early September 2007, with the Project 28 implementation delayed until at least October, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a Congressional hearing, "I am not going to buy something with U.S. government money unless I'm satisfied it works in the real world."
Boeing was required to design, develop, test, integrate, deploy, document and maintain the optimum mix of personnel, technology, infrastructure, and response capability to defend 6,000 miles of border.
Towers were meant to be set up along the border, with varying surveillance and communications equipment depending on the climate, terrain, population density, and other factors.
Towers were slated to include radar, long-range cameras, broadband wireless access points, thermal imaging capabilities, and motion detectors.
The common operating picture would have appeared on computer screens as a geospatial map, where border entries are tracked in real time.
Additionally, the PDAs were supposed to have advanced fingerprint identification technology, to allow Border Patrol agents to identify an individual at the interdiction site immediately and the ability to view and control tower cameras from the PDA.
Airborne sensors on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were meant to fill in gaps in the "virtual fence" in remote areas where building and maintaining towers was impractical.
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Me.
Jerry McElwee, a Boeing vice president, said that the June 2007 version of Project 28 was "a demonstration of our approach and a test bed for incorporating improvements" to SBInet.
[12] In June, 2010 a General Accounting Office report summarized severe criticism of the project stated at a congressional committee hearing.
[1] "SBInet cannot meet its original objective of providing a single, integrated border security technology solution," Napolitano said in a prepared statement.
"DHS briefed Congress today on my decision to end SBInet as originally conceived and on a new path forward for security technology along the Southwest border.
Where appropriate, this plan will also incorporate already existing elements of the former SBInet program that have proven successful, such as stationary radar and infrared and optical sensor towers," the statement said.
), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also issued a statement describing SBInet as a "grave and expensive disappointment" that cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion for only 53 miles of coverage.
"The Secretary’s decision to terminate SBInet ends a long-troubled program that spent far too much of the taxpayers’ money for the results it delivered," Lieberman said.
"The department’s decision to use technology based on the particular security needs of each segment of the border is a far wiser approach, and I hope it will be more cost effective.