Federal immigration authorities have bought $1.3 million worth of robot dogs from a Connecticut company, according to a federal contract record reviewed by Project Salt Box Monday. The purchase comes a month after the agency disclosed plans to buy the machines.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed the $1,304,296 purchase order on Friday with RADeCO Inc. of Plainfield, Conn., an authorized distributor and industry partner of Boston Dynamics.
The order, which runs until Nov. 24, covers “Cerberus Spot quadruped robots and accessories” for the agency’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs, according to the record.
The agency did not seek competing bids for the order. According to the contract record, ICE used a rule that allows agencies to buy from a single company when only that company can meet their needs, and RADeCO submitted the only offer. The record also shows that the purchase was never posted on the government’s contract opportunities website.
RADeCO sells the Cerberus as a customized version of the Boston Dynamics Spot robot and describes it as a fully integrated platform for explosive ordnance disposal and for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear detection, known as CBRN.
According to a product description on the company’s website, the Cerberus adds updated ground station controls, thermal, infrared and high-definition cameras for remote driving, extended-range communications equipment that RADeCO calls “military grade,” and its own Blackstone detection software.
The Blackstone software sends readings from CBRN sensors on the robot to the Android Team Awareness Kit, a smartphone app that the military and law enforcement agencies use to share maps, locations and other information in the field, according to RADeCO. The company says the software is part of a project funded by a Department of Homeland Security research division that works on countering weapons of mass destruction.
A Homeland Security procurement forecast, first reported by ABC News on Aug. 28, said ICE planned to spend up to $2 million on the robots and could use them to detect hazardous gas, inspect unexploded ordnance, investigate suspicious packages and explore underground or confined spaces. Some of that work overlaps with cases handled by Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative arm, which pursues cross-border smuggling tunnels and drug cases that can involve labs with toxic chemicals.
Detecting radiological and nuclear material, which the Cerberus package is also built to do, has mainly been the work of Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies.
Boston Dynamics has said its terms of use bar customers from arming the robots. When news of the planned purchase broke, the company said “any attempted weaponization of Boston Dynamics’ robots is strictly prohibited,” according to Mass Daily News.
It is not clear why the agency’s tactical office needed the full detection package. ICE did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Project Salt Box.
1. For those who asked what is being done - the De-Ice Action Network (DIAN) started a campaign to engage Boston Dynamics. We did this because no one in the Network believes for one minute that ICE will not weaponize these robotic dogs against people. The folks at Boston Dynamics who talked to our leadership are living in a world of surrealism. Rachel Maddox ran a piece on the DIAN action as did the Boston Globe.
2 Hyundai owns 43% of Boston Dynamics. Consideration is being given about starting actions against Hyundai.
DIAN successfully ran a campaign against Citizen Bank financing the deportation camps.
We need to keep identifying and engaging corporate America who is making huge profits off the crazed anti-immigration cartel.
Weird how these companies always name things like "Cerberus" and "Palantir" and we're not supposed to take the implications seriously, that they intended to do evil shit.