TSA Testing Millimeter Wave Security Portals at Phoenix

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun testing MMW millimeter wave body screening portals at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport to determine their efficacy as a voluntary alternative to pat-down secondary screening of passengers.

TSA also plans to test these technologies, built by L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems, at New York's JFK and Los Angeles in the coming months.

L-3 says its active MMW technology, dubbed ProVsion, can detect objects made of any material, including liquids, rubber, wire, plastic, and metal, to quickly and easily locate weapons, contraband, and other threats concealed under an individual's clothing. The portals can detect both metallic and non-metallic weapons and virtually all known explosives, and other contraband in seconds, according to L-3.

ProVision portals are presently used at Israel's new border crossing, Amsterdam's Schiphol, Madrid's Barajas, control checkpoints in Iraq's International Zone (Green Zone), in Afghanistan as part of the NATO contingent, a data center in Tokyo, and a number of other transportation facilities and public and private buildings around the world.  10-13-2007.

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