• Northrop Grumman, L-3 awarded EPX contract

    EPX aims to create a shore-based, manned aircraft which will provide intelligence, surveillance, and targeting (ISRT) support to carrier strike groups

  • Billions spent on airport security, but major security gaps remain

    In the post 9/11 rush to bolster airport security, billions were spent and different technologies and systems were tried, but experts — and government watchdog organizations — say major security gaps remain; Congress, TSA, and the industry are increasingly anxious; the latest hope: Millimeter wave machines, which can see through clothes by analyzing the reflection of radio frequency energy bounced off passengers

  • TSA reacts to blog posting

    Earlier in the week TSA launched a Web blog to which passengers can post comments and suggestions; the agency has already responded to suggestions made by several passengers: It halted a practice at some airports that required travelers to remove all electronic equipment from carry-on luggage during security screenings

  • India's Tata Group, U.S. company to manufacture defense equipment

    India is worried about China’s growing military might; Indian companies see an opportunity here, and more and more of them are looking to enter the defense market — with U.S. companies as partners; the U.S. government, too, is intensifying its defense cooperation with India

  • EU and industry launch Clean Sky technology initiative

    The initiative, a joint EU-industry scheme in which $2.3 billion will be invested between 2008 and 2014, aims to speed up technological breakthrough developments and shorten the time to market for new green aviation solutions

  • NATS selects Era's Squid for Gatwick

    Leading provider of airport navigation and traffic management services selects a vehicle-mounted surveillance and monitoring solution for its Gatwick operations: Era’s Squid monitors ground traffic at busy airports (and Gatwick claims it is “the world’s busiest single runway airport”)

  • Wind farms "a threat to [U.K.] national security"

    The U.K. has an ambitious plan calling for producing a third of Britain’s energy needs from offshore wind farms; there is a problem, though: The Ministry of Defense says that both onshore and offshore wind turbines create gaps in radar coverage of the coast line, allowing a sneak aerial attack on the country

  • LAX implements game theory insights for better security

    Game theory algorithm, developed by USC graduate student, improves security by putting police on unpredictable schedules and in unpredictable locations, making it more difficult for terrorists to plan an attack which would exploit observable weaknesses in security routines

  • Trial for mandatory biometrics at Heathrow Terminal 5

    BAA is testing fingerprint security system on passengers at Terminal 1; system will be implemented in Terminal 5 when it opens; T5 will have one lounge for both domestic and international passengers, and new system aims to allow security authorities to have better monitoring of passengers in the lounge

  • EDI to use Xyratex to manage Beijing Airport security

    EDI Technology, a Chinese storage integrator, will use Xyratex F5412E RAID system from Xyratex, a U.K.-based enterprise data storage subsystems and storage process technology provider, for online and archive storage of video surveillance at Beijing Capital International Airport

  • Getting one's name off no-fly watch list a major hassle

    The U.S. lists 28 organizations as terrorist organizations; their total membership is estimated to be around 180,000 (of about 120,000 are members of the recently added Iranian Revolutionary Guard); yet, the U.S. terrorism no-fly watch list now contains more than 700,000 names — and it is growing by thousands every month; if your name got on the list by mistake, it is not easy to have it removed

  • airBaltic selects cockpit security from AD Aerospace

    One key security upgrade which resulted from the 9/11 attacks has been the installation of impregnable cockpit doors; locked doors means that the pilots need other means to monitor area right outside the cockpit — and airBaltic chooses AD Aerospace’s gear for that

  • TSA launches aviation security blog

    TSA launches a blog — Evolution of Security — aimed at encouraging conversations and exchanges between the traveling public and the agency’s experts on matters pertaining to air travel security

  • Aviation still a major target for terrorists

    DHS secretary Michael Chertoff says that commercial aviation is still a major target of terrorists; U.S. and European counterterrorism experts agree that U.S. faces a major threat from European-born terrorists

  • Magnetic fingerprinting to contribute to air traffic safety

    European researchers develop an innovative system which monitors tiny fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by a passing plane; system increases airport safety even in the worst weather conditions