The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it plans to invest up to $395.5 million through fiscal year 2026 on people-screening technologies, mainly the body scanning types of machines currently being used at aviation security checkpoints, according to a new roadmap for the imaging technology published by the agency this month.
While the agency has been testing next-generation body scanners—known as Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT)-2 systems—with multiple vendors and plans limited procurements of these in the near-term, it expects to begin replacing the current AIT systems with lower cost, more advanced AIT systems, TSA says in its Advanced Imaging Technology Roadmap.
TSA has tested AIT-2 systems supplied by American Science & Engineering [ASEI], L-3 Communications [LLL], and Smiths Detection.
Currently TSA has 734 AIT-1 units deployed at 158 airports in the United States. The systems are supplied by L-3 and are based on millimeter wave technology and include automated target recognition (ATR) algorithms that highlight where a potential threat is on a person’s body if a system alarms on an individual being screened.
TSA’s budget request for FY ’16 includes no funding to purchase AIT systems although the agency has carryover funding to acquire 50 more systems, which would likely be the AIT-2 systems being tested, according to agency budget documents. The AIT-2 systems are expected to increase detection, increase passenger throughput, and use less real estate than the current AIT machines.
The Government Accountability Office reported last spring that the AIT-2 program is about nine months behind a previously revised schedule.
The AIT systems began to be widely deployed at the nation’s airports following the failed 2009 attempt by a terrorist to blow up a plane while in flight between Amsterdam and Detroit. The terrorist had a bomb in his underwear.
The roadmap includes timelines for future AIT enhancements over the next five years. These improvements include upgrades over the next one to two years to address known threats and inefficiencies, innovations during the next two to four years that apply existing capabilities and put them to new uses, and within the next five years make transformational investments for future fielded capabilities. These transformational capabilities are expected to begin to be realized as part of the recapitalization process starting in FY ’17.
The upgrades within the next two years are considered core capabilities investments and will install Tier II threat detection algorithms on the current AIT-1 systems. TSA says in the roadmap that its costs to acquire AIT systems are expected to decline “significantly in FY ’15 once it procures a limited number of the AIT-2 systems.
The investments in adjacent capabilities in the next two to four years to address emerging threats and create new efficiencies will allow legacy AIT units to be further enhanced with detection algorithms. The agency says the Tier IV algorithm development is expected to be under way early in 2015.
Other investments in algorithms and technologies in the next two to four years to improve image processing may come in the areas of comprehensive sensing, improved computational capabilities, multispectral approaches, and multiple orthogonal detection modalities.
Regarding transformational capabilities investments, TSA says that in FY ‘17 it “plans to shift away from the current IAIT platform and begin focusing on the recapitalization process.” To this end, it says, “a major platform change could be necessary” so that it can provide more proactive, dynamic and efficient screening solutions with more innovative technologies and improved threat detection.
TSA is also interested in people-screening systems that are flexible and can adapt to changing requirements, thus allowing systems to be switched from one screening mode to another.
“TSA plans to stipulate the hard requirements that these next generation AIT systems be standardized with enhanced detection algorithms and dynamic switching capabilities to ensure lane and platform flexibility,” the roadmap says. “Next generation AIT systems should also provide lower cost of ownership.”
TSA says in the roadmap that research done by vendors, some of which has been directed by the agency, demonstrates the possibility that AIT systems can eventually be deployed to allow individuals to walk through the machines and eliminate or at least decrease the passenger divestiture time. The current system require a passenger to enter the machine and briefly stand still during the scanning process.
Walkthrough systems could be based on modular flat panel screens that can be reconfigured, providing flexibility to checkpoint configurations. These systems would also have smaller footprints and lead lower costs.
“This makes it possible to rapidly turn a TSA PreCheck lane into a standard lane, and vice versa, as required to optimize security operations,” the roadmap says. PreCheck lanes are used by trusted travelers who typically don’t have to divest items or remove their shoes and lightweight outerwear.
Checkpoint technologies also have the potential to be integrated, which will further enable TSA to conduct dynamic screening to adjust detection algorithms based on a passenger’s risk assessment, the agency says.
The roadmap says that as TSA expands Risk Based Security screening of passengers, “there will be greater priority for the integration and automation of people-screening technology to support dynamic capabilities that are intelligence driven.”
The roadmap also discuses the TSA trade space, which includes five components used to drive investment decisions. The components are security effectiveness, operational efficiency, passenger satisfaction, industry vitality, and the policy and fiscal landscape.