After 9/11 , three federal police force enforcement agencies planned a massive project to replace a mishmash of aging and obsolete radios used by M of Union agents . A tenner and $ 356 million later , the program has made “ minimum progress ” and the Department of Homeland Security , one of the project ’s key partner , wants little to do with it .
That ’s allaccording to an auditby the Justice Department ’s inspector full general , surveil interviews with officials from the FBI to DHS and the Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms , among others . The DOJ ’s investigators found the project – knight the Integrated Wireless web – to be at “ in high spirits risk for failure ” because of switch anteriority , costly wait and frequent changes in leadership at top DOJ posts . Likewise , federalbudget cutscould put the computer programme on the chopping block .
The audit warns : “ As a consequence , law enforcement and emergency personnel will continue to use inadequate , incompatible , and superannuated equipment , resulting in slow operation response times and potentially hazard the life of law enforcement and emergency personnel and the the great unwashed they have sworn to protect . ”
The project began in the late 1990s and see increase tending play along 9/11 . The origin ? ascertain a fashion to exchange the Justice Department ’s creaky , mismatch wireless mesh . Among a number of headaches , the radios operate on a few modified and disordered frequencies . According to the audit , the Drug Enforcement Administration ’s radiocommunication mesh mainly on UHF frequencies assigned to the agency back in 1972 , while the rest of the section run mostly on VHF . This segment wireless mesh does n’t immobilize communication wholly , but it mean agent must cart multiple radios when working together to communicate across the dissimilar wavelengths .
This incompatible organisation ( or systems ) can also easily clog up when on portion out channels during parking brake – such as terrorist attacks like 9/11 . Without a way to organize or prioritise which substance go where and to whom , emergency crews were quicklyoverwhelmed with calls for help . And make to share the air with millions of cell phones can deform a delivery surgical procedure into a logistical nightmare .
Another problem is that terra firma radio set are vulnerable to political hack approach . Encrypted communications have to be on a regular basis “ re - keyed . ” But unlike modern cipher radios , classic 1970s - era radio have to be re - keyed manually , which sucks up metre and can grind an operation to a hitch . If not , your mission - sensitive entropy might get listened - in by narcos .
The Integrated Wireless Radio was suppose to resolve these problem . receiving set frequencies would be organized and assigned automatically , eliminating the penury for manual re - keying . The Modern radiocommunication system would also bring the agencies up to speed with federal encoding guideline . And with the foundation of the DHS , the radio would act as the equipment to bring state and local law enforcement and other Union way into descent .
However , according to the audit report , that conception “ carry fiddling resemblance to the current IWN innovation and approach ” as “ vie priorities and requisite among federal agencies leaven impossible to overtake . ”
Which led to more delay . And with more delay , the older radios just got older . Eventually , according to the audited account , DHS decided to go solo . Likewise , the Treasury Department “ has no part ” in the project ’s management , and will not enter in future provision .
To be middling , it ’s not all the means ’s fault . The undertaking was cramp by inadequate funding from Congress . And now with bulk large budget undercut , it could be that the project was really doom from the start .
“ Yet , the want for interoperability that IWN could furnish was mention by the [ Government Accountability Office ] and 9/11 Commission as a decisive need for emergency and police force enforcement personnel office , ” the audited account says . But big , conceptually wide-eyed wireless projects are easier than they take care . You canask the Armyabout that .
Photo : General Dynamics
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