CBP declares border surveillance milestone, seeks larger deployments
By
Ross Wilkers
Customs and Border Protection agency has given full operating capability for General Dynamics' updates to a southern border surveillance system as agency eyes more widespread deployments.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has given full operating capability for updates delivered by General Dynamics on a sensor and surveillance system along the U.S.’ southern border with Mexico.
This decision comes nearly one-and-a-half years after the company completed a round of initial field deployments and tests on the Remote Video Surveillance System upgrades. RVSS is operational at five sites in Arizona with two deployments to Texas scheduled for later this year.
General Dynamics received a 10-year, $103 million contract in July 2013 to update RVSS sites. That contract covers five deployments in Arizona and eight in Texas.
In a January request for information, CBP asked industry for ideas on how it could deploy additional RVSS units and re-locatable platforms along both the entire southern and northern borders respectively with Mexico and Canada. That expansion would add at least another 150 RVSS stations.
The RFI seeks contractor support for construction, equipment installation and support for network and security operations centers to include hardware and software.
The Remote Video Surveillance System contains electro-optical and infrared sensors that work to give Border Patrol agents ground surveillance via a video management system with real-time analytics functions.