After a number of delays, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Friday selected Britain’s BAE Systems, MorphoTrust and NCR Government Systems to compete for work under a program to provide document authentication technology at airport checkpoints in the United States and its territories.
The ceiling value of the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for the Credential Authentication Technology/Boarding Pass Scanner System (CAT/BPSS) is worth $79 million. Initially, though, TSA is awarding a total of $3.2 million to buy 10 systems from each of the companies to be pilot tested in airports beginning early next year.
TSA has not selected the airports yet but expects the trial phase to last about 45 days before deciding on additional purchases. The agency said yesterday that the new technology will be incorporated into risk-based passenger screening pilots that are slated to begin at four airports shortly.
Currently, when a passenger approaches an aviation security checkpoint, a TSA Travel Document Checker (TDC) manually inspects a person’s ID, such as a driver’s license, and boarding pass, with the help of some low-technology systems. The CAT/BPSS system is supposed to automate these checks for the TDC and simultaneously scan the boarding pass and ID.
“This technology will automatically verify passenger identification documents and boarding passes to further enhance security,” John Pistole, TSA Administrator, said in a statement yesterday. “This technology will help facilitate risk-based security, while making the process more effective and efficient.”
The goal of the CAT/BPSS is to deploy a computerized system that will read and analyze data and embedded security features on every passenger’s ID and boarding pass, and to identify fraudulent IDs and boarding passes.
The Request for Proposals issued by TSA earlier this year for the system said the agency plans to purchase 1,100 CAT/BPSS units.
MorphoTrust is part of France’s Safran Group and is the former L-1 Identity Solutions business. NCR Government Systems is a division of NCR Corp. [NCR].