The American Department of Homeland Security is seeking to develop a new mobile surveillance platform that merges artificial intelligence, radar, high-power cameras and wireless networks into a single system, according to federal contract records reviewed by WIRED. The technology would be installed on 4×4 vehicles capable of reaching remote areas and transforming into rolling, autonomous observation towers, extending the reach of border surveillance far beyond its current fixed sites.
The proposed system surfaced Friday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection quietly issued a pre-solicitation notice for what it calls a Modular Mobile Surveillance System, or M2S2. The list includes draft technical documents, data requirements, and design objectives.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
If M2S2 works as described, Border Patrol agents could park their vehicles, raise a telescopic mast and, within minutes, begin detecting movement several miles away. The system would rely heavily on what’s called computer vision, a type of “artificial intelligence” that allows machines to interpret visual data frame by frame and detect shapes, heat signatures and movement patterns. Such algorithms, previously developed for use in war drones, are trained on thousands or even millions of images to distinguish between people, animals and vehicles.
The development of M2S2 comes amid the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants across the United States. As part of the initiative, which sparked widespread protests and condemnation of heavy-handed tactics used by immigration authorities, Congress increased DHS’s discretionary budget authority to approximately $65 billion. The Republican Party’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” allocates more than $160 billion for immigration and border control measures – the majority going to DHS – with the funds to be distributed over several years. The administration has sought to increase DHS funding by about 65 percent, proposing the largest expansion in the agency’s history to fund new initiatives in border control, detention capacity and immigration surveillance.
According to documents reviewed by WIRED, the locations of objects targeted by the system would be pinpointed on digital maps within 250 feet of their true location (with a stretch goal of about 50 feet) and transmit that data through an application called TAK, a government-built tactical mapping platform developed by the U.S. Department of Defense to help troops coordinate their movements and avoid friendly fire.
DHS envisions two modes of operation: one with an agent on site and another in which trucks remain mostly unattended. In the latter case, the vehicle’s onboard AI would perform monitoring and send alerts to remote operators when it detects activity. Missions must be recorded from start to finish, with video, maps and sensor data retained for at least 15 days, locked against deletion “under any circumstances”.
