Facing Budget Cuts, War Contractors Pitch Spy Tech Equipment to Cops, Others for Domestic Use.

[chill_wind]

Contractors Pitch Spy Tech to Cops

Facing U.S. budget cuts, the industry that makes drones, radar equipment, and sensors for use in Iraq and Afghanistan is looking to sell them at home to police, border patrol, and others

Oct 18, 2011 1:51 AM EDT

Eli Lake

It’s known as IBISS, the acronym for the Integrated Building Interior Surveillance System. Like its name suggests, it can see through the walls of buildings and sketch out images of what’s inside.

Until this year, IBISS was a classified system, a piece of high-tech wizardry the military used to fight the war on terrorism. The contractor that made the system, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), couldn’t talk about it in public, but that’s changing. IBISS is one of the new products SAIC is hoping to sell to local police stations and fire departments as the defense contractor explores what is known in the industry as “adjacent markets.”

Adjacent markets can mean anything from foreign militaries to the Department of Homeland Security for the industry that makes the computer systems, software, remote sensors, radar and ground stations that comprise Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) for the military.

(snip)

Brad Antle, the president and CEO of Salient Federal Solutions and a former vice president of Lockheed Martin, said, “I think it’s logical to assume your adjacent markets for ISR capability, assuming the federal government won’t let you sell it overseas—and it’s pretty sensitive, so I can’t imagine you are going to get much of that approved for foreign sales—they are going to try to push it down to the state and local governments to see if there is a mission to support.”

[saras]

1. Historically, porn is the obvious next step for this sort of innovation

[Kurovski]

3. I was just gonna say.

Well, we can expect all kinds of laws to change so they can unload all the new technology in exchange for enforced taxpayer largess.

Just gotta buy a few pols, and that investment will flourish.

Edit: because I'm spelling like a drunk freeper today.

[TheKentuckian]

2. Of course.