After a number of delays, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) this month selected Britain’s BAE Systems, MorphoTrust and NCR Government Systems to compete for work under a program to provide document authentication technology at airport checkpoints in the United States and its territories.
The ceiling value of the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for the Credential Authentication Technology/Boarding Pass Scanner System (CAT/BPSS) is worth $79 million.
Initially though, TSA is awarding a total of $3.2 million to buy 10 systems from each of the companies to be pilot tested in airports beginning early next year. BAE received $94,715, MorphoTrust $1.9 million, and NCR $1.3 million.
TSA says on its blog that the CAT/BPSS systems will be deployed at airports early next year for operational testing. The airports where the testing will occur include Dallas Fort Worth, Miami, Detroit Wayne County and Atlanta, among others. The four airports already identified are where the agency has begun a trial of its risk-based passenger screening program called PreCheck—which allows select airline passengers to submit to more rigorous background checks in return for expedited security screening at the checkpoint—and will incorporate the CAT/BPSS systems.
All of the companies that were selected for CAT/BPSS declined to discuss their respective solutions pending approval by the TSA.
Currently when a passenger approaches an aviation security checkpoint, a TSA Travel Document Checker (TDC) manually inspects a person’s ID, such as a driver’s license, and boarding pass, with the help of some low-technology systems. With CAT/BPSS, the TDC will scan a passenger’s ID while the passenger scans their own boarding pass using a built in scanner that is part of the system.
To comply with privacy restrictions, the technology automatically deletes the information from the system.
The CAT/BPSS system is takes the guess work away from the TDC and verifies the authenticity of the documents and that the information on both match.
The new system is also supposed to verify the IDs of airline personnel and can screen a wide range of travel documents, TSA says.
“This technology will automatically verify passenger identification documents and boarding passes to further enhance security,” says John Pistole, TSA Administrator. “This technology will help facilitate risk-based security, while making the process more effective and efficient.”
The Request for Proposal issued by TSA earlier this year for the system said the agency plans to purchase 1,100 CAT/BPSS units.
MorphoTrust is part of France’s Safran Group and is the former L-1 Identity Solutions business. NCR Government Systems is a division of NCR Corp. [NCR].