The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is seeking $71.5 million in FY ’19 for investments in its passenger screening program, with all of the funding proposed for acquiring 145 computed tomography (CT) systems that will screen carry-on bags at checkpoints.

The budget proposal represents the largest request by the agency for CT systems at the checkpoint, which is the technology currently used to automatically screen checked bags for explosives and offers similar potential at checkpoints.

Department of Homeland Security budget documents say that CT “is the most impactful technology available today that will allow TSA to automate much of the threat detection function in carryon luggage.”

Current Advanced Technology (AT) X-Ray systems used to screen carry-on bags at airport checkpoints provide a two-dimensional image of the bag and its contents whereas the CT systems provide 3-D images.

Through a combination of using previous appropriations and a planned $35 million reprogramming request to Congress for the FY ’18 budget, which has yet to be finalized, TSA hopes to purchase about 40 CT systems this year for checkpoint screening. Of these, 28 would be fielded in airports and the rest would go to three different government test facilities.

TSA Administrator David Pekoske has told Congress that the CT systems for the checkpoint are his top priority.

The plan for the 145 CT systems to be purchased in FY ’19 is to deploy the equipment at 14 top high-risk airports. Once these systems are deployed, TSA says follow-on deployments will be aimed at 25 more high-risk airports.

The request for CT systems at the checkpoint is less than required, according to congressional and industry officials. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says in a statement about the DHS FY ’19 budget request that TSA needs additional funding for the CT systems.

Mark Laustra, the vice president of Global Business Development and Government Relations for Analogic [ALOG], which expects to provide TSA with CT systems soon for checkpoint evaluations, tells HSR that the FY ’19 request is a “marked improvement” over FY ’18. However, he says, “The request unfortunately leaves a number of high-risk airports with inferior screening technology in place for upwards of three years.”

In addition to Analogic, Integrated Defense & Security Solutions, L3 Technologies [LLL], ScanTech and Smiths Detection are all offering CT at the checkpoint solutions to TSA. TSA earlier this month said it plans to award each of the companies’ small contracts for two CT systems each to be used for testing.

TSA, in the FY ’19 budget request, touts the benefits of the CT systems over the current AT technology. The agency says that in addition to the 3-D images, the systems allow the screening operator to rotate the scanned bags 360-degreees.

“These features allow officers to virtually remove unwanted clutter, and greatly enhances their ability to visually inspect the contents of carry-on bags for explosives and prohibited items,” TSA says. The agency also says that, “Additionally, CT technology offers an enhanced imaging platform that can be upgraded to automatically detect the full range of the Accessible Property Screening System (APSS) detection standards. The APSS detection standards is expecte3d to further advance checkpoint capability, as it requires detection of a broader range of homemade explosives, reduced false alarm rates, increased automated detection for threats and prohibited items, remote image screening, detection of greatly reduced threat mass, and the potential ability for passengers to leave liquids and laptops in bags.”

Overall, TSA seeks $389.6 million for its procurement accounts, up $86.3 million from the FY ’18 request. The agency plans to use funds from its operations and support (O&S) account to purchase 294 Credential Authentication Technology units and 149 Explosive Trace Detectors. TSA will use O&S funds for these purchases because the units fall below the threshold to require buying them through the procurement account.

In addition to the CT acquisitions and installations for the checkpoint, TSA for its passenger screening program in FY ’19 also plants to enhanced its Advanced Imaging Technology systems with improved threat detection algorithms, deploy AT simulators for testing, establish a new ETD quality product list for the 6.2 detection standards, and test and deploy CAT systems for PreCheck trusted traveler lanes. The agency also plans to connect AIT, enhanced metal detectors, and TED systems to the Security Technology Integrated Program (STIP), which connects TSA screening equipment into a network.

TSA also says that in FY ’19 it plans to work with its stakeholders on an “open architecture, system-of-systems approach” to five areas of the checkpoint. The areas are legacy capabilities, primary people screening, accessible property screening, alarm resolution, and identity verification.  

The request for STIP in FY ’19 is $8.4 million, including $2.9 million related to the checkpoint and $5.5 million for checked baggage.

TSA is also requesting $29.9 million for its Electronic Baggage Screening Program, which include CT and ETD systems for checked  baggage. The request is in addition to the annual $250 million for the program available through the Aviation Security Capital fund. The agency says its FY ’19 plans include the continued recapitalization of CT EDS systems supplied by L3 and Smiths Detection, purchase of additional ETD systems, and cyber security upgrades.

DHS is requesting $47.5 billion in discretionary funding overall in FY ’19.

The largest single ticket item in the DHS procurement request appears to be $1.6 billion for construction of new border security wall in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector in South Texas. Senior administration officials tell media on a background call that the request for the wall funds is based on Border Patrol requirements.

That request for wall funding is in line with expected FY ’18 spending levels for more than 70 miles of wall in the San Diego area. The Trump administration has said it eventually wants $18 billion to fund hundreds of miles of a new border wall system along portions of the southern border.

Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, is also seeking nearly $56.7 million for the procurement of two Sierra Nevada Corp. Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft, which are used for maritime and land border surveillance missions, $43.7 million for 54 sensor towers for the Remote Video Surveillance System, which is supplied by General Dynamics [GD], and $44.2 million for  refreshing and recapitalizing large and small-scale non-intrusive inspection technology at ports of entry.

The Integrated Fixed Tower program, provided by Israel’s Elbit Systems [ESLT], would get less than $2 million under the budget request.

McCaul says the budget request demonstrates President Donald Trump’s commitment to border and cyber security.

Despite the Trump administration’s concerns that cyber security threats continue to increase, the DHS request in this area is slightly down from a year ago, $713.1 million versus $720.6 million respectively. In FY ’19, DHS wants $237.6 million for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program and $407 million for the National Cybersecurity Protection System, better known as EINSTEIN.

The CDM program is focused on monitoring threats inside federal networks while EINSTEIN is used to try and prevent threats from entering these networks. A number of contractors provide tools under CDM. Raytheon [RTN] is helping DHS with EINSTEIN.

DHS’ cyber security operations are carried out within its National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD). NPPD’s request includes $47.8 million in research and development, a $36.7 million jump from a year ago due to a shift in funds from the department’s Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate.

Senior administration officials say the shift in cyber security R&D funds to NPPD is being done to better align that spending with operational requirements, adding that the S&T Directorate will continue to assist in the cyber R&D efforts. A DHS budget document says that shifting the funding to NPPD will enable it “to take the next step in the R&D lifecycle to identify and fund the development of next-generation cybersecurity tools.”

Jeanette Manfra, the assistant secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications within DHS, says at a Brookings Institute panel on cyber security that her office and S&T will work together that R&D in the cyber area is “directly aligned with operational requirements, the notion being you put it closer to the operators so that we can drive that, but it’s absolutely a partnership.”

Manfra says that when it comes to emerging technology development, there are often challenges in scaling it across the entire federal civilian government. She is also interested in applying R&D to supply chain challenges and to encryption. “How do we ensure the benefit of encryption but also have insight and not lose visibility,” she says.

Within the S&T request, which is $583.3 million overall, representing a $44 million cut from a year ago, a DHS Budget-in-Brief document says that $54 million would be cut from cyber security R&D efforts, with $46.2 million being transferred to NPPD, and the Cyber.gov program being eliminated for an $8 million savings.

The Cyber.gov effort is an internal program to review next-generation cyber security architecture for the dot.gov environment, an S&T spokesman tells HSR.