Peraton secures $277M CBP aerostat recompete

Peraton has been awarded the recompete of its contract for operations and integrated logistics support services to the Customs and Border Protection agency’s fleet of airborne radars along the U.S.’ southern borders.

The new version of the Tethered Aerostat Radar System contract has a $277.5 million ceiling over one base year and up to four option years, Peraton said Tuesday.

This effort also known as TARS supports law enforcement operations across the U.S.-Mexico border, in the Florida Straits and parts of the Caribbean Sea to counter drug trafficking, human trafficking and smuggling.

CBP uses tethered aerostat platforms that look like blimps to relay surveillance and other data to personnel on the ground such as those of military and law enforcement agencies.

Secondary missions related to the TARS program involve Northern and Southern Command air surveillance efforts, plus the North American Aerospace Defense Command for the air sovereignty of the continental U.S.

Deltek data indicates that Herndon, Virginia-based Peraton’s incumbency dates back to its multiple iterations before the company as the market knows it opened for business in 2017, plus when TARS was a program of the Air Force.

ITT Corp. was first awarded the work in 2008, then ITT spun off its defense business in 2011 to create what was then Exelis Corp. Harris Corp. then acquired Exelis in 2015 and two years later sold the services business to Veritas Capital, which rebranded the unit as Peraton.

CBP took over the TARS program in 2013.