The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is currently working with several vendors to get their advanced explosives detection systems certified so that they can be deployed to aviation security checkpoints early in 2017 for field testing, an agency official says earlier this month.
The computed tomography-based (CT) technology, which currently is used in explosive detection systems (EDS) to automatically screen checked bags for explosives, will be tested to screen carry-on bags for explosives and other threats. The technology should make it easier for travelers at checkpoints by not having them remove their liquids and electronics from their bags because of the automated explosives detection capabilities of the CT-based systems.
The current plan is to begin the field testing in the first quarter of 2017, Jose Bonilla, director of TSA’s Innovation Task Force, tells the annual Aviation Security Summit hosted by the American Association of Airport Executives. TSA established the Innovation Task Force (ITF) earlier this year to more quickly demonstrate potential aviation security solutions.
Bonilla tells HSR that he expects multiple vendors will participate in the upcoming CT at the checkpoint field tests, which are planned at several airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Sky Harbor in Phoenix, and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey. The field testing will be in actual screening lanes, he says.
L-3 Communications [LLL], Analogic [ALOG] and Integrated Defense & Security Solutions (IDSS) are all developing CT-based systems for the checkpoint. L-3’s ClearScan CT system has been certified and so has IDSS’ DETECT 1000, which TSA certified last year at a speed of 10 centimeters per second, and then again this month at a higher speed.
The DETECT 1000 re-certification with TSA at the higher speed of 15 centimeters per second, is in line with the capabilities of the tray management systems that are being introduced to automated screening lanes, Joseph Paresi, chairman and CEO of IDSS, tells HSR.
At these speeds, TSA can process more than 330 passengers per hour at each lane. At that rate, the body scanners become the chokepoint for traveler throughput at the checkpoint, Paresi says.
Typically, TSA first puts the technologies it tests through a process at the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Laboratory to be certified for its automated detection capability, followed by an operational validation against a wide range of performance criteria at the agency’s Transportation Security Integration Facility (TSIF) before field testing begins. However, with the ITF, TSA has created Innovation Lanes at airport checkpoints to more quickly demonstrate vendors’ systems. This will enable both the agency and companies to obtain operational feedback in order to incorporate improvements in the technologies and help TSA establish more efficient operational procedures.
Paresi says that the DETECT 1000 system, now certified at the higher speed, will go to the TSIF in January for an operational validation and in parallel is scheduled to go into at least two Innovation Lanes at airports early next year. If all goes well, he expects TSA to put the DETECT 1000 on the Qualified Products List (QPL) as early as next summer, making it authorized for TSA purchase in the third or fourth quarter of 2017.
Bonilla didn’t put a timeframe around the upcoming CT field tests but says the schedule will be “robust and aggressive” to quickly collect data and establish longer-term requirements.
TSA also expects to examine other detection technology for screening carry-on bags, including X-Ray diffraction systems, Bonilla says. TSA currently screens carry-on bags with Advanced Technology (AT)-2 X-Ray systems, which are supplied by Smiths Detection and OSI Systems’ [OSIS] Rapiscan division.
TSA doesn’t plan to acquire additional AT-2 X-Ray systems. The agency requested $49.2 million in FY ’17 for AT-2 systems but later informed Congress that it plans to use the funding instead for next-generation technology that “has neither been tested at the checkpoint nor is a validated requirement,” according to the House markup of the appropriations bill. While the House appropriators criticized TSA for an “inadequate requirements process,” it says it realizes that current TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger is focused on “reforming” that process and wants a report progress related to acquisition reform. The ITF is part of the approach to expedite this transformation.
Paresi says that TSA plans to spend the money on next-generation CT systems for the checkpoint once they obtain QPL status.