The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) is changing the focus of a key effort aimed at developing and producing X-Ray based screening systems that can detect the presence of nuclear threat materials through shielding and for now plans just to continue technology development while also exploring other systems that industry has available that could possibly meet some of the detection requirements, agency officials say.
Under the Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography System (CAARS) project, DNDO awarded three system design and architecture contracts in 2006 with the intention of eventually moving one or more of any successful efforts into production (TR2, Sept. 20, 2006). Those awards went to American Science and Engineering [ASEI], L-3 Communications [LLL] and Science Applications International Corp. [SAI] and had the potential to be worth a combined $1.4 billion including production.
But along the way DNDO realized that the “maturity level” of the companies’ respective technologies being developed under CAARS wasn’t advanced enough to warrant a subsequent production phase, Bill Hagan, assistant director for the Transformational and Applied Research within DNDO, tells TR2.
Joel Rynes, who manages the Joint Integrated Non-Intrusive Inspection (JINII) program–of which CAARS is part of–says some of the challenges include the need for new accelerators and detectors that would be needed to obtain the necessary capability to meet the stiff detection requirements.
“So for a two year acquisition program there was just too much development to get there in a reasonable amount of time,” Rynes says.
There’s also the challenge of finding the right trade-off between the footprints of a CAARS system, which at least in the original artist’s rendering provided by DNDO two years ago appeared to be significant, versus its detection capabilities, Hagan says.
And DNDO appears to be learning some lessons from its experience in the development of the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal program, a new-generation of passive radiation portal monitors that Congress wants the Department of Homeland Security to make sure represents a cost-effective solution to existing portal monitors. That program has been delayed for over a year, in part due to development difficulties but also to satisfy the congressional concerns.
DNDO hadn’t really compared how the CAARS technologies would fare compared to other systems other companies in the cargo screening industry were developing but plans to do so now, Rynes says.
So DNDO will continue working with its CAARS contractors to develop and demonstrate their technologies and in the meantime is preparing solicitations to test current cargo screening systems–or similar systems that will soon be available–to see how well they perform against Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) requirements to detect special nuclear and shielding materials.
Even though the CAARS effort has been ongoing, that didn’t stop companies that weren’t participating in that program from continuing to advance their respective technologies, Hagan says. And he indicates that they won’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.
“They’re pretty far along and the performance is to the point where we said, “Gee, while this isn’t quite up to CAARS performance, it gets us part of the way to where we want to go and maybe we ought to think about this as an alternative,” Hagan says. “Maybe we can use some of this alternatively developed technology to get us part of the way and get deployments of those systems out sooner than we could if we said we’re not going to deploy anything until we can do the whole job perfectly.”
Moreover, these other systems may also be able to do their more traditional job of screening cargo for contraband, such as stowaways, drugs and other illegal goods, in addition to helping better screen for nuclear materials, Hagan and Rynes add.
This approach may lead to getting more systems starting to be deployed possibly before 2012, they say. However, this is all to be determined and will have to await the results of testing, which is slated to begin later this year. Under CAARS, DNDO originally had hoped that the acquisition program would begin in FY ’08 and run through FY ’12 but the development challenges sidelined those expectations. Still, they wouldn’t rule out the possibility of systems and technologies being developed under CAARS eventually find their way into production.
Hagan and Rynes also point out that DNDO is working “hand-in-hand” with CBP, which is the ultimate customer for the NII systems and who has the responsibility for screening cargo as it enters the U.S. Rynes wouldn’t say which inspection systems DNDO and CBP expect to start testing this year but notes that whatever CBP is buying now is a good bet to participate in the expanded program.
That means companies like OSI Systems [OSIS], SAIC, Smiths Detection and AS&E, all of whom supply cargo screening systems to CBP, could benefit under the revised approach to nuclear threat screening.
For the CAARS/JINII program in FY ’08, DNDO is spending $31.8 million, and is requesting $26.1 million in FY ’09.