Implant Sciences offers a solution for would-be underwear bombers
The failed attempt to bring down Northwest flight #253 on Christmas Day only highlights the opportunities explosive detection equipment manufacturers have to sell their gear to worried airport security authorities; Implant Science emphasizes the competitive advantages of its hand-held sniffer
Quantum Sniffer // Source: Implant Sciences
Implant Sciences Corporation, a high technology supplier of systems and sensors for homeland security markets, opened the new year by announcing new initiatives to target the U.S. market in aviation security for its products and technologies, based, the company says, on recent events and the company’s international successes in transportation and aviation security.
In the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on 25 December, the Obama administration has announced the need for a review of air travel security including explosives detection technologies. Implant Sciences’s Quantum Sniffer QS-H150 Portable Explosives Detection system is currently used in transportation and aviation security applications around the world. The company says the QS-H150 can detect a multitude of explosive compounds, including PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate), the substance allegedly used in the attempt to bomb Northwest flight #253 on Christmas Day. Of particular note, the Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) have successfully deployed several hundreds of these systems for use at the Beijing Olympics and in airport security, checkpoint and package screening, and Air Marshall applications.
Glenn Bolduc, company CEO, commented, “Our technology is currently being used around the world by screeners and Air Marshals and we are working diligently to protect even more people closer to home.”
Implant Sciences is currently in discussion with DHS and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on initiatives to address threats from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) utilizing its handheld detection system. Your Defense News reports that in early 2009 the company submitted its QS-300 system to the TSA for testing by the Transportation Security Laboratory (TSL), in connection with the requirements of the Air Cargo Screening Act of 2007. This law mandates that 100 percent of air cargo on passenger aircraft be screened by August of 2010. The company has also been working with one of the largest freight forwarders in the world, and the freight forwarding industry in general, to position its technology for use by the private sector in its efforts to comply with this mandate.
Bolduc concluded, “Our handheld explosive trace detection system provides a necessary and valuable solution to the current threats against the aviation system in the United States. We are working with both the federal and private sector to gain visibility and traction for our technology in the domestic marketplace.”
The company says that the QS-H150 offers compelling technical, operational, and competitive advantages. Among the most significant are non-contact sample collection; non-radioactive ionization; simultaneous detection and identification of explosives particulate and vapor; continuous self-calibration; and ultra-fast clear down (cycle time). The substance library of the QS-H150 is the broadest in the industry and includes not only standard military and commercial explosives, but also homemade explosives (HME) such as those used in the recent attempt. The library is also easily expanded as new threats emerge. These advantages offer an extremely versatile solution for Transportation Security, and can be rapidly deployed to greatly increase the number of items screened, effectively becoming a force multiplier.
