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$15B narcoterrorism war to be outsourced

The U.S. Defense Department has invited five contractors to bid on elements of a new, multibillion dollar effort to combat the global flow of illegal drugs allegedly used to finance terrorism.

Awarded by the Pentagon’s Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office in Dahlgren, Va., the contract vehicle has a potential value of $15 billion over five years. One participant is ARINC, a Maryland-based provider of airline communications systems.

“This gives us the opportunity to bid on this work,” said Linda Hartwig, an ARINC spokesperson. “We don’t have a lot of details yet, but we do know that this is an expansion of what [the U.S] is already doing to fight drug trafficking, and that 80 percent of the work will be overseas.”

Hartwig said the other participating vendors are defense giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, and security contractor Blackwater USA. Blackwater confirmed its participation, but the other vendors did not respond to inquiries.

The vendors will compete for a series of task orders covering a wide range of products and services. These could include anti-drug technologies and equipment, special vehicles and aircraft, communications, security training, pilot training, geographic information systems, and in-field support.

According to ARINC, training elements could include instruction for border police, the construction of shooting ranges and the integration of aircraft-mounted drug detection systems.

ARINC has assisted U.S. drug interdiction efforts since 2002, when it joined the State Department’s Air Bridge Denial program.

Within the Pentagon, the CNTPO is the Pentagon’s lead agency for developing new technology to “disrupt, deter and deny” narcoterrorism. Much of this work relates to prototyping new communications and sensor systems.