Boeing

Boeing [NYSE: BA] officials today announced that its best-of-industry team is pursuing the SBInet program. The Boeing-led team submitted its proposal to the U.S. government and is competing for an estimated $2 billion contract award.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative (SBI) is a comprehensive plan to secure U.S. borders and reduce illegal immigration.

SBInet will enable an optimal balance of people, technology and infrastructure to give the U.S. government a comprehensive and integrated border protection solution.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency will lead and execute both the SBI and SBInet efforts.

"SBInet is an initiative of national significance addressing a global problem," said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. "We've assembled a great team with a breadth of homeland security experience to ensure the success of SBInet."

The SBInet border control strategy is intended to protect U.S. northern and southern land borders including the Great Lakes, and will interdict cross-border violators between the ports and at official ports of entry. The northern and southern border environments are different, so the successful SBInet solution must adapt to these complex environments.

"Boeing understands the magnitude of this task and the issues associated with its complexity," said George Muellner, president of Boeing Advanced Systems. "In addition to homeland security experience, we have a long history of successful development and rapid deployment of sophisticated large-scale systems. One of these efforts involved installing airport Explosives Detection Systems for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration shortly following 9/11, where we handled more than 400 airports in less than six months. Other examples include the U.S. Army's Future Combat System, the International Space Station and our latest commercial aircraft development, the 787 Dreamliner."

The Boeing-led SBInet team includes the following major contractors:

• DRS Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group (Palm Bay, Fla.) -- DRS Technologies, headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., is a leading supplier of integrated products, services and support to military forces, intelligence agencies and prime contractors worldwide.
• Kollsman (Merrimack, N.H.) -- Kollsman, Inc., an Elbit Systems of America company is a multi-disciplined research, development, manufacturing and support organization that provides advanced electro-optical and avionics systems to U.S. and foreign commercial and military markets.
• L-3 Communications (Washington, D.C.) -- L-3 Government Services, Inc., is a provider of advanced integrated security suites designed to counter the variety of criminal and terrorist threats facing our nation. L-3 Communication Systems -- West, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a leader in communication systems for intelligence collection, imagery processing and satellite communications.
• Perot Systems (Plano, Texas)-- Perot Systems is a worldwide provider of information technology services and business solutions. Through its flexible and collaborative approach, Perot Systems integrates expertise from across the company to deliver custom solutions that enable clients to accelerate growth, streamline operations and create new levels of customer value.
• Unisys Global Public Sector (Reston, Va.) -- Unisys Global Public Sector has expertise in homeland security and law enforcement information systems and information technology infrastructure, engineering, operations and maintenance.

The SBInet contract is expected to be awarded in September 2006.