David Sanders / Arizona Daily Star 2007

Other articles by Arthur H. Rotstein:

Monument's partial vehicle ban working U.S. never asked for suspect in agent's death, Mexico says Mexico frees suspect in BP agent's death Loopholes allow the troubled to arm Suspect in Tucson police officer's killing wasn't on no-weapons list UA professor's material resists corrosion Radio glitch with Mars orbiter fixed, officials sayMigrants deaths down along Ariz. border, but high heat loomsBorder fence plans subject of feds' open house in Arizona Federal officials 'listening' to views on border barriers

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Crushing Crew Engineering
Knight Piesold & Co
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TUCSON — A Boeing Co. official in charge of the government's heavily criticized "virtual fence" project said a second section is planned on the Arizona-Mexico border, and a third could be tested near Detroit by the end of the year.

Jack Chenevey, program manager for Boeing's Secure Border Initiative project, told The Associated Press the company views results of its $20 million prototype virtual fence near Sasabe as a steppingstone success, despite widespread criticism. The prototype is set to be replaced this summer.

"Border Patrol agents use it absolutely 24-7. The reliability and availability of the system has exceeded our expectations for a prototype system," Chenevey said in a telephone interview Thursday. He said the project met all contractual requirements.

The prototype, nine movable towers across a 28-mile area southwest of Tucson, is to be torn down this summer because it failed to perform as expected.

Before it comes down, a permanent string of about 17 towers anchoring upgraded radar and cameras and new, microwave-based communications gear will be built.

Boeing was paid $20 million by the Department of Homeland Security to build the fence last summer. It is north of border near the port of entry at Sasabe.

Boeing expects to start building an additional 30 miles of new virtual fencing in southern Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument later this year, Chenevey said.

The virtual fence project is also expected to be tested along the Canadian border this year, the Boeing official said.

"We think we're going to be put under contract to put on a northern border demonstration in the Detroit area, around Lake St. Clair," Chenevey said.

The Secure Border Initiative envisions eventually using virtual fencing along portions of both borders.

The towers are intended to clamp down on illegal immigration by giving Border Patrol agents video and pinpoint locations of intruders to apprehend.

Problems in the computer software tying together detections from its series of sensors, radars and cameras into a common operating picture delayed the prototype fence's operation for several months. Delays in satellite transmission of data added to its problems.

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff didn't accept the fencing until late February — less than a week before congressional investigators criticized the project's performance as not meeting contractual requirements.

Customs and Border Protection officials finally acknowledged last month that the towers, called Project 28, didn't work well enough to continue refining and said they would be replaced with permanent, improved ones.

That drew applause from Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"This committee exposed long ago that P28 was not meeting the Border Patrol's expectations and that these changes were in the works," Thompson said. "I commend the department for finally acknowledging these facts without the spin."

Chenevey defended the program he took over in February, saying that from the start it was intended solely as a demonstration to show that the idea would work.

"This was always a proof of concept, it was always viewed as a situation that it would be a miracle if this was a solution that we hit on the first time," he said.

The initial hardware components, including radar, cameras and even the towers, were "based on what's available, inexpensive and that we can very quickly get six or eight or 10 of and out into the desert," he said.

The same was true of the computer software that was supposed to take sensor information and seamlessly feed it to field agents tracking illegal immigrants.

The off-the-shelf software couldn't handle the job, and Boeing now has a $45 million contract to create a new one.

The Canadian border will pose a new and different set of challenges, with its abundant forests and water that boats can easily traverse, Chenevey said.

"The whole environment is different, and the sensors may or may not be what's required in the southern border," he said.

Customs and Border Protection officials said last month that Boeing has so far been awarded about $860 million in secure-border contracts.

Because the company is working with an "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity" contract, it is difficult to pinpoint costs for individual upcoming projects, Chenevey said.