24 May 07. Raytheon Technical Services Company (RTSC) LLC, has
received a contract valued up to $16.3m to provide passenger and
baggage screening services at two Florida commercial airports, Key West
International Airport and the Florida Keys Marathon Airport, under the
Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Screening Partnership Program (SPP). The total period of performance is four years, four months, which begins today and ends Sept. 30, 2011.
09 May 07. For the first time, the All Terrain Vehicle division of Phoenix International Systems, Inc., is offering its Prowler RTV to the U.S. homeland security communities. The Prowler is being introduced to security, law enforcement and emergency response personnel on the federal, state and local levels at the combined GovSec, U.S. Law and Ready! 2007 Conference and Exposition being held this week in Washington, D.C. Introduced to the military in 2002, the Prowler RTV is in use worldwide by U.S. military forces which require an Internally Transportable Vehicle platform that offers the exceptional reliability, stability, endurance, speed, power and unique operator protection of the Prowler. The Prowler is purpose built to meet these requirements and designed to be easily configured as a platform for perimeter patrol, surveillance, reconnaissance and/or logistic support.
30 May 07. NATO-Russia project for detecting “dirty bombs”. The prototype for a portable device for the detection of hazardous materials, which could be used to make a so-called “dirty bomb”, was tested successfully in St. Petersburg in April 2007. The device is the result of a two-year NATO-Russia
Science for Peace Project, co-directed by Mr. C.J. De Ruiter of TNO
(Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), the Netherlands and Dr. A.
Kuznetsov of the Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia. The project’s aim was to design and build a prototype device to detect concealed explosives,
radiological, nuclear and chemical substances. Named SENNA, the device could have a number of different applications. These include improving transport security by on-site analysis of suspicious containers or luggage; protecting critical infrastructure or public buildings by on-site detection at facilities; and promoting better security for troops deployed in crisis-management operations by allowing on-site detection in the field. This project clearly demonstrates the vital work of the Science for Peace and Security Programme in developing technologies for defence against terrorism, which is a shared objective of the Allies and Russia. The device is based on nanosecond neutron analysis technology and includes a compact neutron generator and an array of four gamma-ray and three neutron detectors. It is a multi-sensor – this means that when the neutron generator is off, it can detect and identify radioactive and unshielded nuclear materials, and when the neutron generator is on, it becomes a detector of explosives and chemical substances, as well as of heavily shielded nuclear materials. Due to the high penetrating ability of neutrons and high-energy gamma rays, the device can “see” through barriers and detect threat materials located inside unattended passenger luggage, transport containers, etc. The device is position sensitive – not only can it detect a hazardous material, it can also show its location inside the inspected object.