L-3 Communications [LLL] has received orders from customs customers in The Netherlands and Saudi Arabia for multiple radiation and X-Ray inspection systems for scanning cargo for potential threats, the company says.
The orders were disclosed on L-3’s fourth quarter earnings call last month by Michael Strianese, the company’s chairman, president and CEO. The values of the orders were not disclosed.
Both orders are “pretty significant for our business,” Paul Simpson, vice president and general manager of Ports and Borders at L-3’s Security & Detection Systems business, tells HSR.
The Dutch order is for multiple CR-Portal systems to be used for screening cargo for harmful radiological materials at multiple locations at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, says Simpson. The portals, which are in the low double-figures, will be networked through a central command center to manage the systems and alarms, he says.
Simpson says the solution is tailored to meet the customer’s requirements.
The CR-Portal is a passive radiation detection system to alert on potentially harmful radiological materials to allow for follow-up screening to identify the materials. Simpson says L-3 has a “state-of-the-art” solution that minimizes false alarms without missing threatening materials, adding that the “threat quantities that we can detect and the level of false alarms we generate are pretty advanced compared to most things available on the market today.”
Dutch Customs is the main user of the CR-Portals and the new order follows one last year for use in seaport security. The core technology is similar for both deployments but given the different operating environments the products are different, Simpson says.
For Saudi Arabia, L-3 is providing multiple CX-Mobile G3 high-energy X-Ray systems for scanning vehicles and containers at different locations. The systems also include a passive radiation detection capability, Simpson says.
The company has previously supplied cargo inspection systems to Saudi Customs years ago and those systems are still in operation but the new order is a result of new product and solutions development the past few years, Simpson says.
Deliveries of the CX-Mobile G3s will occur this year. Like the Dutch order, the Saudi deal includes long-term support as well, Simpson says.
In the past year, L-3’s port and borders solutions business has been generating most of revenue supplying cargo inspection systems to customers in Europe, Central America, and the Middle East. These customers, who include governments and port operators, are buying CR Portal, the CX-Mobile, and the CX-Portal Simpson says.
The company has also received orders from customers in other regions of the world, he says.
L-3 has also been doing more systems integration work with its cargo inspection systems, such as the command center for Dutch Customs, Simpson says. Customers want the systems to be networked to provide more command and control, to be able to use the systems from remote locations, and share the information, he says.