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 News from Around the Americas | December 2005 
US Flags Super Fence Defence
 Herald Sun
| | U.S. Border guards look out through the fence at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas. (Reuters/Jim Young) |
Under siege from terror plotters and illegal immigrants seeking a better life, the US is preparing to throw up a virtual fence around the nation.
More than a half-dozen large defence contractors are preparing to compete for a multi-billion-dollar Department of Homeland Security project designed to fortify the borders with an array of sophisticated technology.
The Secure Border Initiative will involve what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff describes as a "virtual fence" stretching 9600km along the Mexican and Canadian borders, as well as 3200km of coastline.
Potential components include satellites, unmanned spy planes, radar-equipped airships and next-generation replacements for thousands of sensors and mounted cameras already in place.
The gadgetry will beef up an expanded force of Border Patrol agents.
The cost was initially projected at $US2.5 billion but will likely grow.
"The overall strategy over the next five years is to gain control of the border," said Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen.
The plan will also probably include fencing in high-density urban areas, he said, but the main focus will be on improved technology. "We're basically looking at a 21st-century fence, not a 19th-century fence," Mr Agen said.
Mr Chertoff has set up an office in his department to oversee the competition to create the virtual fence, which industry officials expect to last for at least nine months before a decision.
The project comes amid growing concern about the presence of more than 11 million illegal residents in the US and the threat of a terrorist attack launched from Mexico or Canada.
The project will expand and improve America's existing surveillance net, including thousands of sensors and pole-mounted cameras that already spot border-crossers and beam signals to command and control facilities, which in turn dispatch agents.
The camera system, in place since 1998, came under fire from lawmakers this year because of frequent breakdowns and management problems.
Mr Chertoff envisions closer scrutiny from the skies, possibly through satellites and expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicles, which have been deployed on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Border Patrol, a branch of Homeland Security, already has one Predator spy plane, which has logged 228 hours and helped arrest 300 people.
Others are also pressing for increased use of surveillance balloons.
A high-altitude airship Lockheed is developing for the US missile defence agency -- 16 times larger than the Goodyear Blimp -- would be ideal for standing vigil over the border, said Lockheed Martin vice-president Dave Kier.
Republican Congressman Rick Renzi wants a "Red Zone Defence" system that would use radar-equipped tethered balloons to peer across the border to spot people smugglers.
Other potential components of Mr Chertoff's virtual fence include seismic sensors that can pick up the rumbling of a smuggler's truck or sophisticated receivers that can ferret out a mobile phone signal in the underbrush. |
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