A US engineering and IT government contractor that provides CBP with mobile surveillance systems used to monitor the US–Mexico border.
Teledyne Technologies Inc, headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif., is an engineering and information technology (IT) company that operates in a variety of industries, including the aerospace and defense, factory automation, air and water quality monitoring, electronics design and development, medical imaging and pharmaceutical research, and oil and gas industries. The company’s largest client is the U.S. Department of Defense, which accounted for 24.5% of its total revenue in 2023.
In 2021, Teledyne acquired FLIR Systems—now Teledyne FLIR—which specializes in sensor technology, including visible-light imaging, thermal imaging, video analytics, measurement and diagnostic, and advanced threat detection systems. Teledyne FLIR manufactures surveillance systems, aerial and ground drones, thermal imaging systems and cameras, and military equipment.
Teledyne FLIR has been one of the largest contractors of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), participating in the agency’s Mobile Surveillance Capability (MSC) program. The company has provided CBP its Lightweight Vehicle Surveillance System (LVSS), or MSC-Lite. Equipped with thermal imaging, radars, lasers, and illuminators, LVSSs are mounted on commercial pickup trucks, making them easily relocatable. They are deployed in rural and remote areas in which CBP has no fixed surveillance systems.
In 2021, CBP awarded Teledyne FLIR contracts worth over $23 million for surveillance systems, including 19 LVSSs for deployment along the U.S.–Mexico and Canada–U.S. borders. The company stated that it was proud of its “longstanding partnership with CBP and honored that agents who serve our nation’s borders are using FLIR technology to augment their efforts.”
An older and larger version of the LVSS, called the Mobile Vehicle Surveillance System (MVSS), was previously made by FLIR in collaboration with Tactical Micro Inc, a subsidiary of Benchmark Electronics. As of 2022, CBP had deployed 165 MVSSs. Teledyne has since discontinued this product.
Teledyne has also manufactured the FLIR SkyWatch: a relocatable surveillance tower, equipped with night vision and visible light cameras, ground radar, LED searchlights, and other systems, that can be manned or operated remotely.
CBP bought several of these systems in 2007 directly from FLIR and additional units in 2022 and 2024 through a third-party vendor called Zenn Group LLC. In addition to being used by CBP along or near the U.S.–Mexico border, these towers are also used by police departments in, for example, California.
In addition to mobile surveillance towers, Teledyne FLIR provides CBP with drone technology, including its unmanned SkyRaider drones and tether kits, StormCaster sensors for detecting and identifying “targets” along U.S. borders.