U.S. seeks border-security tech

Raytheon Co. among bidders for contract

By Philip Dine

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

WASHINGTON — Raytheon is among five bidders from which the U.S. government will choose a company to revamp the nation's border-protection technology.

Seeking better ways to protect U.S. borders, the Department of Homeland Security asked a few months ago for corporations with expertise in systems integration to supply ideas and technological know-how. They received more than a dozen responses for the program, expected to cost about $2 billion.

That started a process that has received scant public attention — partly because federal officials have been tight-lipped about it — despite the intense public debate over immigration and the role of border security in the war on terror. Now the list of finalists for the Strategic Border Initiative network, or SBInet, is down to five finalists: Boeing Co., Er- icsson Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co.

The firms have devised a variety of ways to combine technology — existing or to be developed — with the U.S. Border Patrol and infrastructure. The survivors were notified this month of their dates for interviews with Homeland Security officials, set for later this month with one company per day.

Geography is a challenge facing the companies, said Robert Villanueva, Boeing's spokesman for the project.