The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) this month began doing market research on technology that can automatically authenticate passenger credentials at aviation security checkpoints after pilot tests of several technologies last year for that purpose failed to meet the agency’s expectations.

TSA issued a combined Sources Sought-Request for Information for a Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) system to share its requirements with industry for such a system while exploring what industry has to offer. The agency says it plans to release a Request for Proposal in FY ’13 with an award anticipated in FY ’14.

In the fall of 2011 TSA awarded small contracts to BAE Systems, Safran Group’s MorphoTrust, and NCR Corp.’s [NCR] Government Systems division to manufacture and supply CAT/Boarding Pass Scanning Systems (CAT/BPSS) to verify and validate the thousands of travel and identity credentials that passengers arrive with daily at aviation security checkpoints across the U.S. (HSR, Oct. 12, 2011).

However, following pilot testing at three airports in 2012, TSA said the systems had issues matching and presenting names related to passenger IDs. At the time, TSA said the system were not ready to be purchased and that it would be 2013 when procurement would begin (HSR, June 20, 2012).

Now TSA says it is taking its lessons from the CAT/BPSS effort and moving forward again.

“TSA utilized information and made appropriate modifications base on pilot testing last summer,” an agency spokeswoman tells HSR via an email response to questions. “The RFI seeks information from industry to complete the implementation of this strategy. CAT will verify the authenticity of the passenger’s photo ID and expects to validate information from the ID against TSA’s Secure Flight vetting system.”

Secure Flight involves checks of certain passenger data, name, date of birth and gender, against government watch lists prior an airline issued passenger boarding passes for flights that overfly the continental U.S.

In operation, the CAT system would be used by Transportation Security Officers to ensure that only legitimate passengers, airport personnel, airline crews and non-traveling passengers such law enforcement officers can transition to the sterile area of an airport. The system must be able to display the authentication results to the TSO and ensure the passenger is appropriately ticketed.

TSA also says the CAT system must be apple to provide TSOs with sufficient detail, such as alert descriptions, to allow for resolution as to why a person has been immediately cleared for access to the sterile area. The system must also display the passenger vetting status.

TSA says it envisions the system to be flexible so that it can be “deployed in different configurations depending on the needs and constraints of each checkpoint environment.”

TSA will provide an application programming interface for the CAT system to enable it to interface with the agency’s Security Technology Integrated Program, which will manage the data transfer of passenger information, allowing CAT to receive ticketing and vetting status information in near real-time. The interface will be provided as Government Furnished Information. [Sol. No. HSTS04-13-RFI-ST1075. Respond by April 15. Contact: Bonnie Evangelista, [email protected].]