The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) yesterday said it has awarded L-3 Communications [LLL] a $44.8 million contract to supply it with 300 new whole body imaging machines equipped with threat recognition software for deployment at airports in the United States in the coming months.
The award, made with FY ’11 funding, includes an option for 200 more Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines, as the whole body imagers are called. The award for 300 units means that L-3 will at least get a majority of the planned purchase of 500 AIT machines with FY ’11 funds.
OSI Systems’ [OSIS] Rapiscan Systems division also supplied TSA with AIT machines and up until now has delivered the majority of the systems in use by the agency at airports, 250 versus 241 for L-3.
A TSA spokeswoman told Defense Daily that the agency still has the option of purchasing additional AIT machines from Rapiscan with the FY ’11 funds. This is dependent on the successful testing of Rapiscan’s Automated Target Recognition (ATR) software the company is developing for its AIT systems so that they can automatically detect potential threats on passengers.
That testing is still slated to occur this fall. L-3 likely got the initial award of FY ’11 AIT funds because its ATR software met TSA requirements through testing earlier this year, which led the agency to begin installation of the threat recognition capability in July (Defense Daily, July 21). All of L-3’s currently deployed ProVision AIT systems are expected to have the ATR software within the next week or two.
The ATR software provides an “OK” message if the AIT machine doesn’t detect a potential threat hidden beneath a person’s clothing. If an object is detected, the software highlights the area of the body that a TSA screener should examine further.
L-3 expects to begin deliveries of the 300 new AIT machines in the next month or two and complete deliveries by April 2012.
TSA has asked Congress to provide funding for another 275 AIT systems in the FY ’12 budget. The House earlier this year rejected the request because it thought the deployments of previously purchased systems were behind schedule and because it wasn’t sure that the ATR software was ready.
Senate appropriators this week approved the funding for the 275 AIT systems in FY ’12.
L-3’s AIT machines are based on millimeter wave technology while Rapiscan’s are based on backscatter X-Ray technology.