Boeing Selects SBInet Sensor Vendor

McQ Inc. said Boeing has selected it to provide a family of unattended sensors for the Homeland Security Department’s electronic border fence project, called the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet). McQ has a basic ordering agreement to provide unattended acoustic, magnetic and infrared sensors, according to contract information posted on Boeing’s online SBInet Toolbox contract page.

This summer, the Army Research Lab selected McQ’s unattended ground sensors as one of 10 “greatest inventions” of 2006.

In a related development, the House Homeland Security Committee plans to hold a hearing on the troubled SBInet project Oct. 24. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff threatened last month to withhold payments on SBInet until Boeing fixes problems on a 28-mile pilot project in Arizona. “I'm not going to buy something with U.S. government money unless I'm satisfied it works in the real world,” Chertoff said last month at a congressional hearing.