Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske says the agency this month or early in 2019 will award a contract for its first large buy of computed tomography (CT)-based baggage scanners for use at airport checkpoints.
Industry officials are expecting for an award of 169 CT machines, with TSA selecting anywhere from one to four of the companies that have systems currently under evaluation at airport checkpoints. The four companies are Analogic, Integrated Defense & Security Solutions, L3 Technologies [LLL], and Smiths Detection.
The award of up to 169 CT machines will be made with fiscal year 2018 and prior year funds.
Congress still hasn’t settled on an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security in FY ’19, but Pekoske says that that once it does, there should be funding “roughly” for 200 more CT machines.
DHS and several other departments and agencies have been operating under a continuing resolution since Oct. 1 as House and Senate negotiators clash over funding for security wall on the southern border. The House is proposing $5 billion for the wall and the Senate $1.6 billion, which is what the Trump administration requested. The $1.6 billion is for fencing, or it could be for technology.
President Donald Trump, however, continues to say he is willing to shut down DHS and the other agencies if Congress doesn’t approve the $5 billion. Democrats in Congress oppose the $5 billion.
In FY ’20, Pekoske said to expect an even larger request for the CT machines.
“I think you’ll all see a much bigger complement of CT machines…building up to a full replacement of the existing technology wherever possible,” he said at the American Association of Airport Executive’s annual Aviation Security Summit earlier this month.
Later, during a gaggle with reporters, Pekoske declined to say how many CT machines TSA expects to request funding for in FY ’20 but indicated it would be a significant amount.
There are currently about 2,400 airport security screening lanes in the U.S. and Pekoske said it’s possible each one gets a CT system. The new systems, which are based on the same technology used to automatically screen checked bags for explosives, will replace Advanced Technology X-Ray systems.
He said the technology will be deployed at any airport than can accommodate the systems in terms of physical dimensions and floor weight. This will keep the technology as consistent as possible across the nation’s airports, he said.
The CT systems will increase security effectiveness and allow travelers to leave their personal electronics in their carry-on bags. In two to three years the hope is that liquids will also be able to remain inside the carry-ons, he said.
Sara Demory, assistant Aviation Director for Phoenix, speaking later during on one of AAAE’s panels, said the evaluation of CT at a checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is demonstrating “tremendous efficiencies.”
Pekoske is the seventh administrator of TSA since the agency stood up in Nov. 2001 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Trump recently signed into law the TSA Modernization Act, which establishes a five-year terms for the administrator, meaning Pekoske potentially could hold the job for around three-and-a-half more years, giving him plenty of time to implement some of his key priorities such as CT at the checkpoint and automated screening lanes.
Pekoske said he spends about half his time observing front line operations and his takeaway regarding CT systems is that they are “really good” for TSA in terms of security effectiveness. He said the “improvement in our ability to detect what we need to detect is night and day difference from the current technology. It’s not even close.”
In the ongoing CT evaluations at airports, passengers do not have to remove their laptops from their hand luggage, which is a convenience, he said. If in a few years passengers don’t have to remove anything from their bags then it’s “a game changer,” he added.