Implant Sciences targets $2 billion U.S. explosives detection market

Implant Sciences Corporation, a high technology supplier of systems and sensors for homeland security markets, late last week announced new strategic initiatives designed to showcase its patented Quantum Sniffer QS-H150 Portable Explosives Detection system for use in the United States. The company says it is building on its sales success with law enforcement and security agencies around the world to seek to partner with U.S. domestic law enforcement agencies and other security organizations that protect both public and privately owned critical infrastructure. The company says it will focus on sites that have screening requirements that fit the QS-H150 profile, including ports, energy facilities, courthouses, military bases, and sports stadiums.

The company estimates that the total U.S. market for explosives detection technologies may be greater than $2.0 billion by 2011.

To support its efforts in the United States, the company has applied for qualification of the QS-H150 under the SAFETY Act, a part of the U.S. Homeland Security Act of 2002 that ensures liability protection for providers of antiterrorism technologies. The purpose of the act is to ensure that the threat of liability does not deter potential manufacturers or sellers of antiterrorism technologies from commercializing and deploying technologies that could significantly reduce the risks or mitigate the effects of large-scale terrorist events. Thus, the act creates certain liability limitations for “claims arising out of, relating to, or resulting from an Act of Terrorism” where Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technologies have been deployed. The company says it believes that SAFETY Act qualification has become an important competitive advantage for success in the U.S. security industry.

Implant Sciences said it was launching these initiatives in response to the increasing threat from homegrown extremism, and its belief that its technology is a proven solution to aid in combating these threats. The Christmas Day bombing attempt of Northwest Airlines flight #253 is only the latest example of what some antiterrorism officials and experts see as a sign of accelerated radicalization among American based terrorists (according to a recent article in Time Magazine, “more terrorist threats were uncovered in the U.S. in 2009 than in any year since 2001”).

Glenn Bolduc, Implant Science’s CEO commented, “The fact that many planned incidents were averted and did not result in actual attacks is in large part due to the work of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. As a leading supplier of explosive detection solutions to law enforcement agencies around the world in countries like China, India and Pakistan, it is the right time to also focus our efforts on assisting law enforcement agencies at home. Our board approved this initiative at our recent Board of Director’s meeting. Two of our board members, Howard Safir, former New York City Police Commissioner, and Robert Liscouski, former Assistant Secretary, Critical Infrastructure, Department of Homeland Security, are specifically helping to shape our efforts.”

The company says that the QS-H150 offers compelling technical, operational, and competitive advantages. Among these 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, including PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) which was used in the recent attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines flight #253, but also a wide variety of improvised and homemade explosives (IED’s and HME’s). The library is also easily expanded as new threats emerge. “These advantages offer an extremely versatile solution, and can be rapidly deployed to greatly increase the number of items screened, effectively becoming a force multiplier,” the company says.

Bolduc concluded, “Our handheld explosive trace detection system provides a necessary and valuable solution to the current threats against the U.S. We are working with both the federal and private sector to gain visibility and traction for our technology in the domestic marketplace.”