More than a dozen CIOs and senior IT managers from the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday told a gathering of industry executives that mobile computing and communications technologies are among the agency’s top strategic IT imperatives.

Speaking at the DHS Information Technology Industry Day, members of the DHS CIO Council and other senior IT program managers underscored the urgent need to modernize outdated systems for new mobile applications while maintaining the agency’s need for security and reliability.

Everything from mobile biometrics to handheld cargo inspection systems, mobile customs and border processing systems and tactical communications for frontline security personnel are currently being studied for transition to mobile applications and devices.

“I can’t beat the table enough on the [need for a] mobility solution,” said Rear Admiral Robert Day, CIO of the U.S. Coast Guard, a sentiment echoed by all 10 CIOs who took part in a public meeting of the DHS CIO Council.

“For TSA, it’s all about mobility,” said Dr. Emma Garrison-Alexander, the CIO of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Agency employees “are on the move and they’re looking for the type of capabilities they have at home,” she said. The reference, again echoed by the other CIO Council members, was to the availability of commercial mobile devices, like tablet computers and smart phones, to easily access voice, video and data applications.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) is also currently studying ways to make more applications “mobile-ready,” said CIO Charlie Armstrong. The goal is to “get the device concerns out of the hands of our officers and let them come to work with whatever device makes sense for them,” he said.

Small Steps, Long Transitions

CBP recently completed a major pilot program in Florida involving legacy applications to screen and process outbound currency and weapons. Armstrong told Breaking Gov that several applications were transitioned to work with handheld devices and laptops linked to the agency’s network via an 802.11G wireless connection. The mobile system allowed CBP inspectors to screen and release cargo in near-real-time without having to wait until they returned to an office computer to input the data.

Armstrong characterized the pilot program as a series of “temporary checkpoints” that were able to process the same level of detailed information as permanent checkpoint locations.

Allan Collier, TSA’s director of Cargo Screening, told Breaking Gov that mobile screening systems are “an important” technological innovation the agency would like to see from industry as TSA pushes to meet a 100% screening mandate at international locations. The agency in Aug. 2011 achieved the 100% domestic cargo screening goal mandated by Congress.

Officials also praised Congress’ recent decision to set aside a swath of telecommunications spectrum, known as the 700 MHz D-block, for use by public safety agencies. Some called this move a “major enabler” of DHS’ mobility strategy, leading agency CIOs and IT managers to consider the 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless communications standard as the first option when modernizing.

John Santo, the executive director of the Wireless Systems Program Office at CBP, said DHS has established a joint program committee to manage the modernization effort of the agency’s existing inventory of land mobile radios. And while DHS would like to move to 4G LTE devices to provide frontline security officers with voice, video and data, current industry offerings do not provide high enough service levels for latency, reliability and security, he said.

“We’re looking for transitional devices,” said Santo, adding that with more than 176,000 devices deployed throughout DHS at the cost of more than $1 billion the agency does not have the option to simply replace older devices wholesale.

“How do we get a hybrid device…that has the ability to talk direct on VHF (very high frequency) and can switch back to infrastructure?” he asked, referring to a device that has the reliability and range of a land mobile radio and the multimedia capabilities of a smart phone.

The answer to Santo’s question was simple: DHS can’t buy any such devices yet, primarily because commercial carriers don’t see a business case in developing services with government grade security and reliability, and then expanding their network to cover the remote locations where DHS operates. Unless, as alluded to by one wireless company executive, DHS decides to bring in state and local law enforcement agencies under the same network.

Santos said he expects the initial effort would predominantly involve commercial services that would slowly transition to a mix of higher grade commercial LTE designed for DHS and commercial services that all feed into a secure network operations center. “My hope is that 4G LTE will start to create cheaper, easier ways to fill in the gaps in coverage,” he said.

Future of Mobility – Anything But Certain

Although mobility was the major theme at DHS’ IT Industry Day, CIOs were also careful to underscore the significant budget restrictions under which they are operating and, if not managed properly, could lead to the loss of critical capabilities in the near future.

“Frankly, I can’t justify pushing the state-of-the-art,” said Mark Borkowski, Assistant Commissioner for Technology Innovation and Acquisition at CBP. “We’re not in a position to do that today.”

Armstrong echoed that sentiment, telling the gathered industry executives that the days of spending on technology for the sake of technology are over.

“If you can’t replace something and reduce [overhead] costs, the conversation probably isn’t going to go very far,” said Armstrong.

Borkowski struck a dire note. “We are about to run out of any investment money,” he said, adding that CBP’s investment capital is being consumed by paying for personnel and maintenance of existing systems. “We’re interested in [companies] that can make clear cases” that an investment will reduce either maintenance costs or demand for personnel, he said.

“The nice-to-have technologies went away last year,” said Day, referring to the impact of the federal government’s budget crunch. And “next year the must-have [technologies] will be threatened.”