By Peter J. Brown

Satellite technology plays a pivotal role in homeland security today and will play an even greater role tomorrow. Many satellite companies are trying to establish new ties with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), or trying to expand ongoing relationships with existing clients in the form of one or more of the 22 agencies that have been absorbed into DHS. Others are watching for signs within state and local offices of emergency management who are seeking satellite solutions via various grants from DHS and from the public health sector.

Everyone realizes it will take time to erect the structure of DHS. Many important programs will take a number of years to complete as well. Budgets are tight, and while the people who set the priorities at DHS may have satellite on their screen, they have not completed the complex process of transforming 22 agencies and approximately 180,000 employees into a single unified organization.

According to Rich Cooper, business liaison director for science and technology in the private sector office, which is part of the Secretary’s Office, interested parties should begin by reading the DHS Strategic Plan titled, "Securing Our Homeland," in order to better understand the challenges that DHS has to address in hopes of fulfilling its responsibilities to the American public. The strategic plan is available on the DHS Web site http://www.dhs.gov.

"By taking a look at those challenges, it will help companies better understand what we face. Each of our challenges is unique and dynamic and if you can tell us how you can address those circumstances flexibly and affordably, the opportunity to help [DHS] will avail itself," says Cooper. "Paying close attention to Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) as well as announced contract opportunities will also help identify specific persons to speak to when it comes to considering satellite services within the Department."

As a former member of the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) team at NASA, Cooper is quite familiar with satellite technology and especially the power and versatility of Ka-band. Given his background in research programs, Cooper is quick to advise the commercial satellite industry to review the BAAs that the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) has released since its beginning last year, in order to grasp the priorities and interests of HSARPA.

"I always encourage companies to attend at least one of the workshops that HSARPA sponsors throughout the year. It is important that they hear directly from David Bolka [director of HSARPA] and his management team about what they are doing and what avenues they as companies can take to answer their needs," says Cooper.

According to Cooper, two of the biggest priorities at DHS are uninterrupted communications ability and the capacity to acquire geospatial imagery and related tools. He identifies sensor development for biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological agents as the number one priority for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate.

"No one knows more about sensors than the satellite community," Cooper says. "I would not expect anyone from DHS to post a formal "To-Do" or "Wish list" for the satellite community. We are asking people, industries and communities to look at our responsibilities whether that be in patrolling our borders and ports, exchanging information with law enforcement, or helping a community plan, respond and recover from a natural disaster such as a flood, forest fire or hurricane and see how they can contribute to the homeland mission," says Cooper.

"We have to work more closely with DHS as an industry," says Susan Miller, president of Intelsat Government Solutions Corp., which provides bandwidth and managed services to numerous government agencies that now reside within DHS, along with technical support and consulting services in many instances. "More partnering is necessary as DHS forges a series of guidelines as opposed to pursuing its current ad hoc approach."

This ad hoc phase may be slowly coming to an end, but does it mean that DHS is easy to work with or that successfully identifying the right players is something that can be done overnight? Most satellite equipment manufacturers and satellite service providers say it is not. The overall situation, however, is improving with the initial confusion and hesitancy on the part of DHS as its departments transitioned. Industry executives are quick to point out, however, that there is still confusion on which procurement activity will occur locally at the state and municipal level, and what will occur at the national level.

When it comes to making the first move with DHS, besides studying the recent BAAs, and attending HSARPA workshops, be aware that DHS is reaching out to the satellite industry in other ways.

At the first Maine Homeland Security Conference this past May, small business owners were directed to pursue a number of beneficial options by Kevin Boshears, director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization at DHS. Besides reviewing information posted on a new DHS Web site,

http://www.dhs.gov/openforbusiness, and obtaining a copy of the DHS report titled, "Forecast of Contract Opportunities," Boshears urged small business owners to, among other things, either contact DHS directly or to consider working with a large prime contractor by identifying a niche, skill or service that the prime contractor might not be pursuing for a variety of reasons. In addition, Boshears also urged all interested parties to contact Joe Capuano at DHS by phone at 202/401-3517 or by e-mail at [email protected], for more detailed information and assistance. While these state and local orientation sessions are going on all the time, there is a sense that a more focused event would serve everyone’s interest.

In addition, there are a considerable number of applications from commercial satellite companies that overlap both the DHS and Defense Department (DoD), and, that many companies are benefiting from long-term partnerships that have their origins in the vast DoD satellite-related inventory.

Key service requirements needed by the DHS

Leslie Blaker, vice president of development at Americom Government Services (AGS) points out that in 2002, President Bush stated that, "the information technology (IT) revolution has changed the way business is transacted, government operates and national defense is conducted." In mapping threats against vulnerabilities, according to Blaker, IT integration is clearly DHS’s initial priority, along with establishing needed baseline telecommunications infrastructure to support those systems. Currently, DHS officials are intensely focused on getting all information sharing systems within the Department seamlessly talking to each other.

"Satellite will initially play an ancillary role as a result of this approach, however, this is expected to change as new applications are being considered in areas requiring mobile broadband communications for first responders, restoration efforts and border security," says Blaker. "As a result, commercial satcom will enjoy marketshare in supporting these applications, provided funding decisions can be made to release monies as originally outlined in the Homeland Security Defense plan. How will they go about funding and defining these requirements? Both are important points that await firm answers from DHS."

Through the National Communications System (NCS), the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) Satellite Task Force (STF), which consists of many participating commercial satellite industry members, made a big step forward in this regard by surveying commercial satellite communications requirements of all 22 agencies within DHS. "Everything at DHS is still very much in the preliminary planning stage with the exception of a few programs such as the TSA [Transportation Security Administration], or as part of existing larger programs like PAWWS (Ports Authority Waterways System)," says Blaker, who is also well aware of the activities under way at HSARPA and the DHS Office of Science and Technology. "This is where new concepts are being explored through pilot programs offering a gateway to increase visibility, and the level of awareness within DHS of the role of satcom technology."

As a wholesaler, Inmarsat Ltd. provides capacity to DHS users through its distribution partners, according to Jack Deasy, Inmarsat manager for North America Government Development. A number of DHS agencies are legacy Inmarsat users, including the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). While some people are interested in the most elaborate solutions for USCG’s Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), for example, requiring lots of new money, Deasy offers Inmarsat-C as a sound alternative, which can be deployed as a tracking solution today without new satellites.

"We are encouraging USCG to use legacy systems for MDA without hardware upgrades for tracking solutions," says Deasy. "The key thing to keep in mind here is that the satellite solution in question has to be easy to use, transparent and immediately familiar. The agencies cannot afford anything beyond the most abbreviated training at this point," Deasy adds.

As for the individual states, most are including satellite communications in their emergency preparedness and response planning. The list includes New York, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, New Mexico, Minnesota and Connecticut, to name a few.

"A lot of different states have good ideas with respect to how satellite fits into their overall approach to emergency preparedness," says Miller. "You encounter different requirements at the state level because each state has unique criteria and a different mix of critical infrastructure, along with such things as various port and border issues."

DHS Needs A Central Satellite Office

DHS is not exactly a ship without a rudder when it comes to satellite technology, but it suffers from a lack of coordination. One specific recommendation from declassified sections of the recent report by the STF, for example, states, "Fund the Department of Homeland Security to implement a commercial satcom National Security/Emergency Preparedness improvement program within the NCS to procure and manage the non-DoD satellite communications facilities and services necessary to increase the robustness of government communications."

Within the industry, there seems to be widespread agreement that within DHS, a centralization of satellite activities makes good sense. "It is widely thought that DHS must implement a consolidated approach to both procurement practices and the overall management of satellite bandwidth. But to implement this through the NCS as the recommended channel, NCS must be granted this level of management authority. NCS does not have that authority now," says Blaker. "DHS could greatly benefit from the coordination that a centralized procurement office could provide."

By far, one of the most significant requests of the DHS coming from the commercial satellite industry is a need for having a single agency develop large-scale contracts for satellite services, such as for transponder time. This kind of process would be fine as long as the individual service can procure the proper device or application without having to go through multiple complex procurement cycles.

Interoperability is also a key concern, and here again, the lack of a team or even a trio at DHS focused on satellite solutions alone means that interoperability is probably not being given the attention that it needs. "DHS needs to preserve interoperability, and this involves a flexible standards-based approach rather than embracing closed proprietary platforms," says Miller. "By adhering to interoperability standards, DHS would not only benefit through interagency and interprogram communication, but also benefit through increased buying power."

The decisionmakers at DHS have a lot to sort through and the enormous volume of information that comes across their desks each week is hard to comprehend. The size and scope of the undertaking at hand is immense. The threat of information overload is something that cannot go unnoticed.

"Getting their attention is one thing. And when you do, you are left to wonder about what exactly they remember once the meeting ends and the door closes. I just do not know, given their attention span is pressed to consider and prioritize so many immediate deliverables," says one satellite industry executive who has tracked DHS closely for many months.

If you are feeling that your satellite-based contribution to homeland security is not being treated as a priority item, you can take a deep breath. If nothing else, you can concentrate on partnering and better adapting your product and service based on closer observation of what is unfolding at the state and local level. Homeland security must not be viewed as simply a business proposition, but an urgent undertaking on a vast scale, which has the best interest of U.S. citizens in mind as it winds its way to fruition. Think years, not months, and yet do not lose sight of the fact that requirements can change in a heartbeat.

"I see the satellite and in particular the larger aerospace community as significant contributors to the DHS mission," says Cooper. "Remember, this is the same community that fulfilled the Apollo mission in record time by crafting the communications, sensors, and power and materials science technologies," Cooper adds. "This time though, our mission is much closer to home, and if there is any industry that can contribute to that mission, it is by far this community."

Editor’s Note: This is the first of our two-part government series. Even though many commercial companies are working with DHS, we hope you find useful the additional procurement channels and communication needs of the DHS relayed in this article. In our August issue, we will conclude our series by examining the communication needs and the procurement initiatives within the DoD.

Peter J. Brown is Via Satellite’s Senior Multimedia & Homeland Security Editor. He also volunteers as a satellite technology and communications advisor to the Maine Emergency Management Agency.