22 Feb 07. Science Applications International Corporation won a contract from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide security services to Customs and Border Protection. The single-award time and materials contract has a one-year base period, four one-year options and a total value of $39.2 million, if the customer exercises all options. As required by the customer throughout the contract, SAIC will perform work including certification and accreditation, security risk assessments, security test and evaluation, system architecture, communication security services, and technology policy and administration. “We are pleased with our selection by DHS to continue our work on this important program for the Security and Technology Policy Branch,” said Larry Cox, SAIC senior vice president and Intelligence and Information Solutions Business Unit general manager. “We are proud to support a program that has such a profound impact on the protection of our homeland.” (Source: ASD Network)

26 Feb 07. Tories unveil border police plans. Tory leader David Cameron will also say that ID cards are a bad idea. The Conservatives have appointed the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens to lead a working group on creating a border police force. They would use money saved from scrapping planned identity cards, as well as savings in the Home Office budget, to fund the plans. Tory leader David Cameron will insist in a speech that “porous” borders have worsened the UK’s social problems. However, Labour have attacked the policy plans as “posture politics”. In a speech to be delivered later on Monday, Mr Cameron will say: “Right now, our society is not properly defended against the drug dealers, people smugglers, gun importers and terrorists who find it all too easy to bypass the current system.”No single organisation is responsible for performing this vital task. “Instead we have at least six separate agencies, including Revenue and Customs, the Immigration Service, the security services, harbour police, Soca (Serious and Organised Crime Agency), and the Metropolitan Police.” (Source: BBC)

01 Mar 07. New rescue helicopters delivered. The S61N will be replaced by the new model. The first of four new helicopters for search and rescue operations in Scotland have been delivered to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). Two Sikorsky S-92s will be based at Stornoway in the Western Isles and two at Sumburgh in Shetland. MCA will lease the helicopters from CHC Scotia, who won an interim contract to supply aircraft from 2007 to 2012. The S-92 replace a fleet of S61Ns – which were designed in 1961 – in a deal worth more than £100m. (Source: BBC)

27 Feb 07. FLIR Systems, Inc. has been awarded two indefinite delivery – indefinite quantity contracts from the US Coast Guard with a combined value of up to $87.3m. The first contract, valued at up to $49.9m over five years, is for the U.S. Coast Guard’s Shipboard Infrared Visual Sensor System (SIRVSS). The second contract, valued at up to $37.4m over ten years, is for the Coast Guard’s Electro Optical Sensor System (ESS). The units delivered under the SIRVSS contract will be installed aboard existing Coast Guard cutters, with each system being fully integrated into the ship’s Command and Control system. The ESS systems will be installed on HH-60 and HH-65 helicopters to enhance the Coast Guard’s airborne use of force, interdiction and search and rescue missions. Deliveries on SIRVSS have begun, and ESS deliveries will begin in the second quarter of 2007. Anticipated deliveries under these two contracts in 2007 total approximately $8m. (Source: Shephard)