Project Seahawk, the Department of Justice administered unified intelligence operations center for the Port of Charleston, S.C., has deployed the OmniView Gantry X-Ray system for the inspection of high risk cargo containers entering the port. OmniView is the most powerful X-Ray inspection system deployed at a commercial port in the U.S., Bill Mahoney, CEO of the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), tells TR2. The OmniView Gantry, built by American Science & Engineering [ASEI] under a contract awarded in June 2006, uses shaped energy and Z Backscatter technology and can penetrate up to 14 inches of steel (TR2, June 28, 2006). Under current procedures at the port, if a container arouses suspicions, the contents are removed and inspected, a time consuming and costly process. With the OmniView system, suspicious containers are far less likely to have to be opened unless a threat is uncovered, Mahoney says. He estimates that 5 to 10 percent of the containers coming into the port will be inspected by the OmniView system. The system will be operated by Customs and Border Protection officers. Mahoney says that there is additional backscatter capability the port would eventually like to add to the OmniView system to allow it to detect more items. The new system was installed by AS&E and the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center-South East, which is administered by SCRA.