The Future of Border Security

Washingtonpost.com takes a look at technologies for border security in their piece 'Firms Vie to Provide the Future of Border Security' which discusses how 'The Department of Homeland Security is expected within days to name a winner in a competition that could permanently change the way the United States conducts surveillance, apprehension and detention operations along its northern and southern boundaries.'

The proposals include:

- Northrop Grumman Corp: the sky above the Rio Grande would be thick with drones.

- Cellphone maker Ericsson Inc: would focus instead on giving Border Patrol agents wireless devices capable of receiving live video.

- Boeing Co: would build high-tech towers, lining the borders with 1,800 of them.

- Lockheed Martin Corp: blimps are a big part of the solution.

- Raytheon Co: the key is letting agents watch incidents unfold on Google Earth.

Now this admits a cross-over from military to civil 'space': "Overall, the proposals lean heavily on technology developed for the battlefield. "We're transferring things that are military today into a civil implementation," said Bruce Walker, a Northrop Grumman vice president who has led the California company's efforts"

The battlefied lines are blurring...