The Transportation Security Administration has ordered more than 1,200 computed tomography (CT) scanners worth $1.3 billion for use in airport checkpoints starting this summer.
“These CT units represent sophisticated technology that helps our professional, dedicated and highly skilled workforce detect new and evolving threats to improve aviation security,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in an April 12 press release. “Deploying these units across our security checkpoints as expeditiously as possible will also improve checkpoint efficiency and the passenger experience.”
The purchases, from three separate companies, would include 426 base, 359 mid-size and 429 full-size CT units, the release reports. The totals include the purchase of 59 CT units for $42.9 million from the Fiscal Year 2023 budget funding of $105 million for 136 units.
Base-size CT units will be provided by Analogic Corporation; mid-size units by IDSS Holdings; and full-size CT X-ray systems will be provided by Smiths Detection Inc., the release states. TSA looked at nine proposals after requesting applications for the awards, according to the release.
"CT scanners apply sophisticated algorithms and create 3-D rotatable images to help operators detect explosives and prohibited items," the agency states in the release. "TSA officers can then view and rotate the image on three axes to analyze and identify any threat items that may be in a passenger’s carry-on baggage."
The TSA has been purchasing CT scanners for airport checkpoints for several years, the release reports.
TSA announced two awards in March 2022 for the purchase of base and full-size CT x-ray systems for airport checkpoints, with a combined total value of up to $781.2 million. The federal agency announced in August 2021 that it had been awarded $198 million for the purchase of mid-size CT x-ray scanners; 2019 saw the TSA make public its inaugural AT/CT program acquisition of 300 CT checkpoint systems for airports nationwide.
Currently, there are about 634 CT units in place, with more scheduled to go online at TSA checkpoints all over the nation beginning this summer.
