"Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for new technologies"

["Jaro" <jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca>]

"The major areas for DHS research and development spending for fiscal 2004

will be, in order, biological countermeasures, nuclear and radiological

countermeasures and threat and vulnerability assessments..."



 Jaro

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^





http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_hsd_story.jsp?id=news/rus09173

.xml

Homeland Security & Defense   Sep 24, 2003

DHS Rushing Low-Cost Technologies To The Field And Searching For

Breakthrough Products

By Harvey Simon

September 17, 2003



The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for new technologies

that will transform the way the government protects against, or responds to,

terrorism. In the meantime, the DHS wants low-cost products that can be used

even as they are being tested.



The department's Science and Technology Directorate, which spearheads the

DHS' high-tech acquisitions, is looking for something that will "really

change the game," said Jane Alexander, acting director of the Homeland

Security Advanced Research Products Agency (HSARPA).



These revolutionary ideas, she said, would change the department's plans for

what it needs to fight terrorism.



Only 5 percent to 10 percent of the DHS research and development budget --

$699 million this year -- is being directed to breakthrough systems,

according to Alexander.



Meanwhile, the DHS is looking for low-cost equipment that even volunteer

fire departments accustomed to charity fund-raising can afford, Alexander

told a homeland security contracting conference in Washington, D.C., Sept.

10.



Most first responders can't afford two sets of equipment, one for a

terrorist incident and another for everyday use, she said. So "affordability

is a performance requirement," she said.



A case in point is the DHS' pursuit of technology to replace the current

generation of filters on air monitors that sniff the atmosphere for

biological agents in cities across the country. These filters are removed

daily and taken to labs for analysis at a cost of $40 million a year.



The DHS would like to have the analysis done automatically at the monitoring

stations with the results radioed to authorities. The DHS also is looking

for equipment that can be used in the field even as it is being evaluated.



This policy of simultaneous use and evaluation is driving the DHS to favor

equipment with virtually no false positives. For example, if a device

designed to detect a biological attack were to issue an alert while being

tested, officials would be hard-pressed to completely ignore the warning.



This drive to rapidly deploy anti-terrorism equipment separates the DHS from

the Defense Department, which normally does not deploy and field-test

equipment simultaneously.



HSARPA is one component of the Science and Technology Directorate, which

also includes the Office of Plans, Programs and Budgets, the Office of

Research and Development, and the Office of Systems Engineering and

Development.



The directorate is not yet fully staffed but is using exemptions that

Congress gave it from certain government civil service rules to rapidly hire

people from industry, Alexander said.



Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said the DHS is taking too long to fill key

positions. "Clearly, it is important to hire the best-qualified people. But

it is also important to hire them quickly with full authority to act," he

said in a statement Sept. 11.



Science and Technology, according to Alexander, is looking for people from

both small and large companies, and from academia, who have program

management experience. The directorate is also hiring from other federal

departments and agencies, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency.



The major areas for DHS research and development spending for fiscal 2004

will be, in order, biological countermeasures, nuclear and radiological

countermeasures and threat and vulnerability assessments, according to Kei

Koizumi, who monitors federal R&D spending for the American Association for

the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.



Most anti-terrorism R&D is done outside the DHS, which has just 1 percent of

the federal government's total R&D budget, Koizumi told the contracting

conference.



Still, the DHS is on track to receive a large boost in R&D spending for next

year. The R&D budget is expected to grow to more than $1 billion, depending

upon final congressional action, which is expected by Oct. 1, when the new

fiscal year begins.



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