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Division Head: Mrs. Anh Duong
The Borders and Maritime Security Division develops and transitions tools and technologies that improve the security of our Nation’s borders and waterways without impeding the flow of commerce and travelers. The division works closely with its operational customers to identify and generate the best technologies for securing U.S. borders, including ports-of-entry and vast stretches of remote terrain and waterways – with the ultimate goal of stopping threats before they enter the United States.
The primary Federal customers for the Borders and Maritime Security Division are the Department’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – the end-users. Successful transition of these capabilities and technologies will improve DHS components’ performance and support the Secretary’s goals of:
Project Manager: Ken Concepcion
Project Overview: This project is developing an advanced sensor system for monitoring the container’s integrity from the point of consolidation to the point of deconsolidation in the maritime supply chain. The ACSD is a small unit that attaches to the inside of a container to monitor all six sides of the container to report any intrusion or door opening. It will also detect the presence of human cargo in the container. If ACSD detects an intrusion, breach, door opening or human, it will transmit this alarm information through the Marine Asset Tag Tracking System (MATTS) to CBP. The ACSD will also build in a standard plug-and-play interface capability so that other security or commercial sensors (e.g., radiological/nuclear, chemical/biological) can be easily integrated through the standard interface. The ACSD must be able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions of global shipping and be economical for shippers to use.
Project Manager: Melissa Ho
Project Overview: This project provides next-generation risk assessment and targeting tools in two phases. Phase 1 (ASAT I) was delivered to CBP in FY 2008 and detects anomalous container shipments based on patterns of known threat activity through extraction of structured, linked data, supply chain anomaly detection, and pattern matching. ASAT II will significantly enhance risk assessment capabilities through development of computer algorithms and software that will analyze the supply chain characteristics of a given shipment, including open source data (e.g. business, financial, socioeconomic) as well as other available Government held data to develop a probabilistic threat analysis of that shipment based on its respective supply chain context.
Project Manager: Ken Concepcion
Project Overview: This project expands upon the composite material developed in the Hybrid Composite Container project to determine whether it can be used to develop an Air Cargo Composite Container that will be able to detect tampering or intrusion from the point of consolidation to the point of deconsolidation in the air cargo supply chain. The project’s success depends on ensuring lightweight comparability to existing aluminum containers and interoperability with existing aircraft loading infrastructure.
Project Manager: David Taylor
Project Overview: This project develops an automated imagery detection capability for anomalous content (e.g. persons, hidden compartments, contraband) to be integrated with existing and future (i.e., CanScan) Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) systems. This ATR capability is broadly applicable to the scanning and imaging systems used by CBP and TSA providing an operator-assisted decision aid for target discrimination within low-resolution images. Further, the ATR will be scalable to accommodate advanced NII systems with higher resolution imagery and material discrimination capability.
Project Managers: Scott Bolen and David Throckmorton
Project Overview: This project plans to improve law enforcement agents’ effectiveness and enhance officer/agent safety while searching vessels/vehicles. Many of these tools will leverage technology currently under development by DHS or Department of Defense (DOD) for other purposes. These tools will provide:
Project Managers: Mark Kaczmarek, David Throckmorton, and Scott Bolen
Project Overview: This project plans to integrate technologies that will enable border security law enforcement agents to more safely perform their mission. These technologies include, but are not limited to:
Project Managers: Leslee Shumway and Mark Kaczmarek
Project Overview: This project plans to develop, integrate and test sensor technologies in an operational environment to provide in-the-field capabilities, improving mission effectiveness and agent safety. This project will act as a risk reduction activity for major acquisition programs, such as SBI Network (SBInet). It will include:
Project Manager: David Taylor
Project Overview: This project develops a next-generation non-intrusive inspection (NII) system which will be used to detect terrorist materials, contraband items (e.g., drugs, money, illegal firearms), and stowaways at border crossings, maritime ports, and airports. These new systems may provide increases in penetration, resolution, and throughput compared to existing NII systems and will support marine containerized cargo as well as airborne break-bulk, palletized, and containerized cargo. CanScan will provide improved cargo screening.
Project Manager: Ken Concepcion
Project Overview: This project develops a device whose sensor(s) can detect the opening of container doors from the point of consolidation to the point of deconsolidation in the maritime supply chain. Since the ACSD development will not be complete for some time to come and since the current generation of mechanical seals can be easily circumvented, the CSD will provide an interim capability to monitor the status of container doors. The CSD is a small, low-cost device mounted on or within a container which can detect the opening or removal of container doors and reports its status to CBP.
Project Manager: Ken Concepcion
Project Overview: This project develops a potential next-generation ISO shipping container with embedded security sensors to detect intrusions from the point of consolidation to the point of deconsolidation in the maritime supply chain. The container will be constructed from composite materials with embedded sensors. Composites are stronger than steel and are 10-15% lighter than current shipping containers. Weight savings can benefit shippers by allowing them to load more goods per container to meet the weight limit than they would ordinarily be able to. Also, composites are easier to repair therefore decreasing their overall life cycle costs over existing steel containers.
Project Manager: Ken Concepcion
Project Overview: This project establishes a remote, global communications and tracking network to be used with the Advanced Container Security Device (ACSD) from the point of consolidation to the point of deconsolidation in the maritime supply chain. MATTS is able to communicate security alert information globally through the use of RF, Cell and Satellite technology. In addition, the commercial shipping industry can track and monitor cargo as it moves through the supply chain.
Project Manager: David Throckmorton
Project Overview: This project helps border enforcement agencies make informed decisions in immigration/border security policy and operations using systems engineering tools and models. It provides systems engineering, analysis, and trade-off studies to SBI.
Project Manager: Jeanne Lin
Project Overview: This project provides a basic research feed to SBI for decision making. Decision making is often complex, and marked by uncertainty and turbulent environments. In a complex world we would ideally be able to make decisions in real time while taking into account areas including: multiple influences (technical, organizational, policy, political, managerial, human/social considerations); constant flux in data and resources; issues affected by politically driven realities. This research effort could enhance SBI decision making capabilities by assessing multiple, disparate factors affecting leadership decision making.
Project Manager: Melissa Ho
Project Overview: This project communicates via an RFID reader any tamper event to the carton such as the insertion of a WMD after it leaves the point of manufacture to the point that it is delivered in the maritime and air cargo supply chains. This project provides improved supply chain visibility, chain of custody, and security beginning after it leaves the point of manufacture. It is scalable and applicable across the various shipping modalities including maritime and air cargo.
Project Manager: Melissa Ho
Project Overview: This project provides a transparent, flexible, and tamper-indicative wrapping material to secure and monitor palletized cargo after it leaves the point of manufacture to the point that it is delivered in the maritime and air cargo supply chains. This wrap is appropriate throughout the international supply chain for all shipping modalities (e.g., air, maritime, land). The wrap will provide a visible and/or fluorescent tamper indication which is deployable with little or no impact to current supply chain logistics and processes. Subsequent iterations of this wrap will be designed to support increasing levels of automated monitoring thereby reducing manpower loading.
Project Managers: Tom Tomaiko and Scott Bolen
Project Overview: This project addresses, documents, and demonstrates visual and non-visual technologies for monitoring the maritime border. Visual technologies provide an eyes-on capability that enables agents to verify if an activity is illegal. Non-visual technologies provide low-cost, long-endurance monitoring to detect and track objects that are not captured by cameras. The project includes the following visual and non-visual technologies:
Project Managers: David Throckmorton and John Appleby
Project Overview: This project develops systems to enable law enforcement officers and commanders to have full situational awareness, enabling effective decision making and execution in complex and dynamic operational environments. Current operations rely mostly on verbal coordination for real-time operational knowledge and situational awareness. This project will:
Project Managers: David Throckmorton, Scott Bolen, and Tom Tomaiko
Project Overview: This project plans to provide law enforcement agents the ability to know instantaneously when a threat presents itself at the maritime border and to provide required information quickly to decision makers and security forces. These functions are performed through an arrangement of personnel, equipment, communications, and facilities as well as the procedures agents employ in operations. The project will include:
Project Manager: Melissa Ho
Project Overview: This project maps the international supply chain including: all the various nodes (e.g., point of stuffing, port of entry), participants (e.g., shippers, CBP, foreign Customs), and information flow (e.g. container manifest is provided to CBP 24 hours before the container is loaded on a ship). This security architecture will provide DHS the framework to incorporate near-term and future container security technologies into supply chain operations. The architecture defines the standards with which vendor technology must comply to ensure secure and reliable data communication. These standards lead to the development of information management systems that will support improved data collection and risk assessment.
This page was last reviewed/modified on September 12, 2008.
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