Security Firm Hopes for Boom in Bomb Detection

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For years, the U.S. military has used radar-based security system CounterBomber to detect suicide bombers overseas. Now, Torrance security system supplier Rapiscan Systems Inc., which acquired CounterBomber earlier this year, said it will begin marketing the technology to commercial users such as airports and sports arenas.

The core technology uses video and radar to screen individuals for anomalies on their bodies: a suicide vest, handgun or other weapon. The systems used by militaries are large and bulky, and Rapiscan is now developing a smaller version that would be about 4 pounds and the size of a large flashlight, said J.J. Bare, Rapiscan’s vice president of CounterBomber technologies.

Developers started working on the technology in 2003, and the Marine Corps first tested the system in 2007. CounterBomber then became available to foreign militaries in 2010, and more than 50 have been sold, Bare said.

The smaller CounterBomber prototype is expected to launch in June, marking the first time the technology would be used for nonmilitary-related purposes. The goal is to begin selling the product within a year of the prototype launch.

“That’s the earth-shaker that’s really going to change the market for everyone,” Bare said. “Frankly, if it works as well as we think it does, there will be a big rush to get it in a product form.”

Bare would not disclose the expected price for the commercial CounterBomber, which will be rebranded. But the cost of the current system used by militaries is “a little bit large for a police agency that’s looking to spend $40,000 for a patrol car,” he said. The smaller version would be “orders of magnitude less” than the current system, at a price municipalities could afford.

CounterBomber was developed by scientists at Science Engineering and Technology Associates Corp. in Arlington, Va., funded by a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The company was acquired in 2007 by Science Applications International Corp., which sold the CounterBomber to Rapiscan, a division of Hawthorne’s OSI Systems Inc., in May for an undisclosed price.

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