18 Dec 02. A contract was recently awarded to Smiths Detection for deployment of the IONSCAN(r) trace explosives detectors from Aeroport de Paris. The systems will be installed at Roissy’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports to enhance existing security measures. This is the first deployment of trace detectors at airports in France, and comes after a thorough comparison of equipment available in the market. Laboratory and field-testing, maintenance and support capabilities were part of the comparison. Deployments of the systems are currently taking place.of IONSCAN(r)’s at Brussels International Airport in Belgium, Venizelos Airport in Athens, Greece, and at 15 airports in Italy. These follow recent orders for IONSCAN(r)s from aviation security agencies in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.

04 Dec 02. QinetiQ has won the second phase of a four year, £3m contract from Scott Aviation to design and develop a mask to protect military aircrew from chemical and biological attack, as part of a contract awarded by the US Department of Defense (DoD). The US Government has already taken delivery of two prototype variants, one for fast jets and the other for helicopters and transport aircraft, which were evaluated by a consortium which included QinetiQ, as part of Phase One competition.

13 Dec 02. Providential Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB:PRVH – News) announced that Clear Pass, Inc. is set to release the new CP5000 system for airport, corporate and homeland security applications using an innovative biometric authentication technology originally developed by Lucent/Bell Labs (NYSE:LU – News). The CP5000 is the most accurate and technologically advanced fingerprint recognition system available today. Embedded with a touch chip developed by the scientists at Lucent/Bell Labs, the CP5000 has the capabilities to identify and grant or deny access to thousands of users. Using both the fingerprint and live sweat glands to establish a foolproof identification process which has recognition time of 0.5 seconds, False Accept Ratio (FAR) of 0% and False Reject Ratio (FRR) of 0.0001%, the CP5000 takes security to a new level by eliminating pin numbers and ID tags which can be lost or forged.