boutons_deux
10-23-2010, 11:17 AM
Costly virtual border fence in tatters
The U.S. is set to defund the troubled project.
after an investment of more than $1 billion, may be a system with only 53 miles of unreliable coverage along the nearly 2,000-mile border.
Boeing has charged the department more than $850 million since the project began in 2006.
the virtual fence has yet to pass muster even in the 53-mile test area — two sections in Arizona that officials acknowledge won't be fully operational until 2013 — and the government's lack of interest in extending Boeing's contract, most do not expect the department to invest billions more in a project that has continually disappointed.
Even as scrutiny of the program has increased in the last year, Boeing has not provided accurate information on the progress of the program, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Oct. 18. The study found an unusually high number of errors in the data Boeing gave to the Homeland Security Department.
Trouble with the invisible fence began in the design phase, when the Homeland Security Department set demands for the technology that surpassed what was available at the time. The department required, for example, that the system help Border Patrol agents be in position to apprehend 90% of the incursions over the border, but the technology has achieved only a fraction of that goal.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-invisible-fence-20101022,0,5546525.story
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Does the contract say that Boeing must refund all the money if the lemon vehicle won't start? nah. Boeing is a big MIC contractor, owns lots of legislators.
The U.S. is set to defund the troubled project.
after an investment of more than $1 billion, may be a system with only 53 miles of unreliable coverage along the nearly 2,000-mile border.
Boeing has charged the department more than $850 million since the project began in 2006.
the virtual fence has yet to pass muster even in the 53-mile test area — two sections in Arizona that officials acknowledge won't be fully operational until 2013 — and the government's lack of interest in extending Boeing's contract, most do not expect the department to invest billions more in a project that has continually disappointed.
Even as scrutiny of the program has increased in the last year, Boeing has not provided accurate information on the progress of the program, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Oct. 18. The study found an unusually high number of errors in the data Boeing gave to the Homeland Security Department.
Trouble with the invisible fence began in the design phase, when the Homeland Security Department set demands for the technology that surpassed what was available at the time. The department required, for example, that the system help Border Patrol agents be in position to apprehend 90% of the incursions over the border, but the technology has achieved only a fraction of that goal.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-invisible-fence-20101022,0,5546525.story
============
Does the contract say that Boeing must refund all the money if the lemon vehicle won't start? nah. Boeing is a big MIC contractor, owns lots of legislators.