Customs and Border Protection seeks industry help on technology for surveillance towers; web meeting on project scheduled for Jan. 13

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US Customs and Border Protection wants to work with industry on the organization’s effort to upgrade surveillance towers used for border security, CBP announced.

A virtual vendors’ day will be held January 13 and the deadline to register for the event is January 5. 

Customs and Border Protection intends to acquire hardware and services for the deployment and integration of towers, power, instrumentation, and communications, according to the request. 

US Border Patrol Agents require situational awareness to detect, track, identify, and classify Items of Interest including humans, groups of humans, humans carrying bundles, humans carrying long arms, vehicles, animals, ultra-light aircraft and watercraft, according to the announcement.  

Border Patrol currently employs fixed tower systems and Remote Video Surveillance System-Upgrade with a combination of radar and electro-optical /infrared sensors depending on the operational environment.  Towers can be permanent or relocatable.  

These towers are connected to a Command and Control Center via microwave or fiber optic circuits.  Fixed tower systems’ area of operations now include persistent surveillance of the northern and southern land borders, waterways, and coastal areas.

The Border Patrol Program Management Office Directorate intends to award one or more contracts for this project. The Common Operating Picture software, inclusive of Command and Control Center hardware, will be acquired separately from TPIC. CBP plans to award a competitive procurement by the second quarter of fiscal year 2022.

Pre-registration (via email only) is required and must be received no later than Tuesday, January 5th 2021 by 5:00 pm EST.  Interested vendors must submit their pre-registration request and questions electronically by completing the pre-registration and questions form located in the attachments and providing it via email to isttpicrfp@cbp.dhs.gov.  

Agenda

Date:        January 13, 2021 

Time:        12:30 PM – 2:00 PM EST 

Location:   Virtual – Webex Video Conference

  • Webex Conference Opening

12:30 pm – 1:00 pm: Webex open for log-in (*Pre-registration is required)

  •  Greeting, Speaker Introductions, and Procurement Overview

1:00 pm –1:05 pm: Purpose, Introductions, Ground Rules, and  Procurement Overview

  • Presentation

1:05 pm – 1:30 pm: Industry Brief on Integrated Surveillance Towers (IST) Program Update on Towers, Power, Instrumentation, and Communications (TPIC) Contract Request for Proposal (RFP)

  • Vendor Question and Answer Session

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm:  Responses to “select” previously submitted industry questions

2:00 pm:              Pre-Solicitation Industry Brief Complete

Published by Doug Beizer