The Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration has a requirement for Bottle Liquid Scanner (BLS), Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), and Explosives Trace Detection (ETD) technologies and associated support services.

The mission of the TSA is to protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce. To achieve its mission, the TSA must ensure that its security screening equipment is both effective and efficient. This includes security equipment used at all domestic transportation facilities, including aviation, rail, other surface transportation, and maritime transportation (including port security). The TSA’s AR portfolio is responsible for secondary screening of potential threats, and the OPS portfolio is responsible for screening people for potential threats. TSA is continuously evaluating and modernizing processes and capabilities to strengthen the agency’s ability to respond to adversarial actors, detect emerging and evolving threats, and enable efficient and effective targeting of screening resources.

To establish enhanced operational and detection capabilities, which are outlined below.

• Bottled Liquid Scanner
  • The BLS is equipment designed to detect a wide range of hazardous and prohibited substances in liquids, aerosols, and gels contained in bottles or other sealed containers. Any liquid, aerosol, gel, cream, or paste that alarms during the initial screening process requires secondary screening. The BLS can identify hazardous substances, including explosives and toxic chemicals using advanced detection technologies such as Raman spectroscopy and infrared analysis. The BLS can differentiate between safe liquids like water, juice, or shampoo and dangerous substances without opening the container, ensuring minimal disruption at security checkpoints. It can analyze a variety of container materials, including plastic, glass, and metals, and can effectively scan liquids of varying viscosities and compositions. Additionally, the BLS provides rapid and accurate results, making it suitable for high throughput environments such as the security checkpoint.
• Advanced Imaging Technology
  • TSA is looking to establish OPS solutions with a focus on enhancing threat detection capabilities with reduced false alarm rates to reduce contact between passengers and TSOs, moving passengers through the checkpoint in a continuous manner, standardizing image display, and enabling operational connectivity through secure data transmission.
• Explosives Trace Detection
  • ETD technology is used to screen travelers and their property. ETD systems identify trace threats by detecting the chemical attributes/signatures of microscopic residue of threat compounds. The technology is highly sensitive, thereby enabling fast and accurate screening for trace explosives on a variety of surfaces and can be used in all public areas and airports to screen people and their accessible property for the presence of trace threats. The operational procedure includes the collection and analysis of a sample. The ETD system then informs the user both visually and audibly if the sample contains a prohibited threat(s). TSA’s goal is to enable fast and accurate screening for trace threats on a variety of surfaces.