US CBP has awarded TARS to QinetiQ US

QinetiQ US, has received a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine (AMO) Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) Operations & Maintenance (O&M) III contract, comprising one base with four option years, valued at $170M.

The team will provide operations and sustainment efforts on the TARS program which will include air, land, and maritime domain awareness and enabling a proactive and persistent detection and deterrence capability. The scope of work will also include aerostat operations, air-surface radar operations, ground control and data networking systems monitoring, and data analysis to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the program. This capability is an integral part of the mission to detect, sort, intercept, track, and apprehend criminals in diverse environments at and beyond the U.S. borders.

“The CBP TARS program adds to our decades plus support to DHS and the CBP mission at our borders, while also providing us the opportunity to pull from our expansive C5ISR portfolio, specifically in persistence surveillance,” said Shawn N. Purvis, President, and CEO of QinetiQ US. “With a strong history and depth of expertise in national security initiatives, we are proud to be selected to help advance the mission of the CBP through the TARS program.”

Employing tethered aerostats, TARS operators relay vital data to DHS to support monitoring border activity in real time. This data is also shared with the U.S. military and law enforcement partners conducting related air, land, and maritime missions. QinetiQ US and its partners will operate eight TARS sites, with six over the U.S.-Mexico border, one over the Florida Straits, and another over the northern Caribbean area.

“With the threat landscape changing rapidly and demands on domain awareness capabilities increasing, we will use a mission-first, data driven approach to modernize the TARS capability and maintain operations. Leveraging the expertise of partners C Speed, LLC, Elevated Technologies, LLC, and Skyship Services, Inc., we will bring best in class, end-to-end persistence surveillance capability to support some of the nation’s most critical national security missions,” said Jonathan Riksen, Executive Vice President over QinetiQ’s support of DHS missions. “Our men and women protecting our borders are dealing with evolving threats from our advisories and we are proud to join CBP to both sustain and enhance operations to protect against these threats.”