The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) has awarded Raytheon [RTN] an eight-month, $764,000 phase one contract to develop a networked system that would take advantage of existing an future radiation detection sensors–whether handheld, mobile, portal or other–that are distributed to better detect and localize threats. Raytheon’s proposed approach is called Standoff Warning Against Radiological Materials (SWARM) technology. SWARM could take advantage of a network of distributed sensors and help authorities respond quickly and appropriately to an alarm from any point in the network, thereby decreasing search time and cost and increasing the probability that a threat will be detected, John McElroy, the head of homeland security advanced technology efforts at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems division, tells TR2. SWARM would create an “integrated system that promotes cooperative behavior,” he says. The phase one preliminary design effort began in September and is part of a potential five phase, $2.9 million effort. Raytheon, which also has a DNDO contract for the Standoff Radiation Detection System program, is teamed with Los Alamos National Laboratory, MIT, Boston Univ., and Ametek‘s [AME] ORTEC division on SWARM. Raytheon’s SWARM award was part of a flood of research contracts issued by DNDO at the tail end of FY ’08 (TR2, Oct. 15).
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