Transportation Security Administrator David Pekoske last Wednesday signed off on his agency’s latest roadmap, this one focused on open architecture to enhance current and future technologies and provide new opportunities to more vendors, increasing competition and innovation more rapidly.
The new roadmap is expected to be published shortly, Pekoske told reporters last Thursday during a roundtable to discuss his latest Administrator’s Intent document, which lays out how the agency plans to accomplish its strategic priorities in the next two to three years. The roadmaps let stakeholders know how TSA plans to achieve its goals and objectives in a certain area.
TSA for the past few years has been deploying new screening technology at its airport security checkpoints to scan carry-on bags. The agency is acquiring the computed tomography (CT)-based scanners from three companies: Analogic, Integrated Defense and Security Solutions, and Smiths Detection.
About 30 to 35 percent of TSA’s screening lanes have the CT scanners, Pekoske said. At current funding rates, the agency will complete deployments of the technology in 2036, he has told Congress. The CT systems will be around for 20 years or so, he told reporters, highlighting that they will be an enduring technology.
A challenge with having multiple vendors providing CT systems is that they all provide data in different formats. TSA would like for this data to be standardized, which would mean that as software upgrades are needed, they could be competed rather than using the original equipment manufacturer as the only option for the work, Pekoske said.
In 2018, TSA began requiring travelers to remove certain quantities of powders from their bags for additional screening due to concerns about improvised explosive devices. If open architectures are part of transportation security equipment, the goal would be to compete a software solution within one to three months that would quickly analyze the powders for potential threats and then apply the solution across all the manufacturers’ CT scanners, Pekoske said.
Another example where standardized data formats would be useful is allowing TSA to use common workstations on each CT system regardless of manufacturer, which would simplify operator training, he said.
TSA under Pekoske has increasingly been emphasizing open architecture but the concept has not been a key feature in any of its acquisition programs. Later this year, when TSA awards the next tranche of checkpoint CT contracts, open architecture will likely be included as a requirement, Pekoske said.
Earlier contracts for the CT systems allow these units to be retrofitted with an open architecture framework, he said, giving TSA flexibility for future enhancements.