CBP taps Anduril for virtual border sentinel system
Customs and Border Protection will expand autonomous border surveillance towers, but says the tech doesn't mean they're hitting pause on the border wall.
Autonomous Surveillance Tower (photo courtesy: Customs and Border Protection)
Customs and Border Protection plans to deploy up to 200 autonomous surveillance towers as it expands its work with the portable, off-the-grid systems into a program of record.
The towers, supplied by contractor Anduril, are designed as unmanned sentinels along the Southern border with Mexico that operate autonomously in remote areas where grid power is not available.
The agency has been testing the technology for a couple of years. CBP tested four of the towers in the San Diego region in early 2018, and has bought 56 additional towers since, it said in its statement. Ultimately, CBP wants to procure and deploy 140 more in fiscal 2021 and 2022.
In prepared testimony at a February appropriations hearing, acting DHS chief Chad Wolf said that CBP was looking for a $28 million increase to support the rollout of 30 autonomous surveillance towers.
Under questioning at the same hearing, Wolf said the plan called for the eventual deployment of 200 such towers.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) spoke approvingly of the technological approach and questioned the necessity of a physical border wall.
"Because 10 or 20 years from now, there will be different challenges and you'll be able to change that technology to meet the 21st century challenges that a wall is not going to be able to meet," Tester said. "Mark my word, if I live long enough, there will be somebody standing in front of that wall, some president, that will say, 'Tear down this wall,' because it's much more effective utilizing technology, and it's a fact."
In a statement to FCW, a CBP spokesperson stressed the autonomous towers will supplement, not replace, existing Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS) and Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) already in border sections in Arizona and Texas, as well as the border wall.
The autonomous towers, said CBP in a July 2 statement, have a small geographic footprint. CBP agents can break down and set up the towers within two hours, said the agency.
"Commercial innovation, fueled by billions in private investment, is producing advanced commercial technologies directly applicable to CBP's border security mission," the CBP spokesperson said.