The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is planning to initiate recapitalization projects for explosive detection systems (EDS) at about 40 airports this year but pending budget constraints mean these modernization projects will slow in subsequent years, according to the head of the agency’s division that oversees EDS developments.
Significant budget cuts are expected going forward, Jenel Cline, division director for the Checked Baggage Screening Program within TSA’s Office of Security Capabilities, said last month at the American Association of Airport Executives’ annual Aviation Security Summit.
Airports that prefer to proceed with an optimization project, or at least some level of optimization, rather than a wholesale recapitalization will be allowed to make proposals for these, Cline said. There are no guarantees that all proposals seeking optimization will be funded, she said.
“Our going in position for every project is straight recap,” Cline said.
Noting that the schedule is aggressive, Cline said that awards for design other transaction authority (OTA) will be made in the February and March period, and possibly sooner, and that facility modification OTAs will be obligated by the July and August timeframe. OTAs enable government agencies the flexibility to go outside of normal federal procurement regulations to conduct transactions with companies.
TSA began deploying EDS systems for checked baggage screening at airports shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Many of those systems are at or near the end of their expected useful life, which is why the agency is undertaking the recapitalization effort.
Extensive recapitalization was expected to begin about two years ago but this has been delayed for various reasons. One is that new high-speed EDS systems that have been in development for a number of years have been slow to meet TSA’s requirements.
Cline said that TSA expects to begin operational evaluations of two high-speed systems at two airports in 2013. These systems are likely machines being supplied by L-3 Communications [LLL] and Safran Group’s Morpho Detection, Inc. OSI Systems’ [OSIS] Rapiscan division and SureScan are also developing high-speed EDS.
No high-speed purchases are planned in FY ’13. Briefing charts accompanying Cline’s presentation show that in FY ‘13 TSA plans to buy 70 Reduced-Size EDS this year, 50 of which will be under the recapitalization projects. The agency also plans to acquire 137 Medium-Speed EDS, 68 of which will be procured as part of airport recapitalization efforts.
These purchases will go toward airport recapitalization projects initiated in FY ’11 and FY ’12, Cline said.
Cline said that for the FY ’13 recapitalization projects, TSA is assuming that eight months after facility modification OTAs are awarded the EDS systems will be delivered. For projects that are a combination of recapitalization and optimization, TSA is assuming one year until EDS deliveries following the facility modification OTA awards.