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Mr. OBERSTAR. Our next panel consists of Dr. Hadi Bozorgmanesh, Corporate Vice President, Science Applications International Corporation; Dr. David H. Fine, Vice President of Thermedics. Mr. John Paderson, Marketing Manager for Ion Track Instrument, Incorporated.

I want to thank you very much for being so very patient throughout this very long day of hearings. Perhaps, in retrospect, it would have been better to break it into two days. We somehow thought we might be able to get it all packed into one day at a reasonable hour, but we think from the standpoint of continuity of information, it's better to continue to proceed through all of the facets of this issue. And we welcome you here and look forward to your testimony.

Dr. Bozorgmanesh, would you like to begin?

TESTIMONY OF DR. HADI BOZORGMANESH, CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT, SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION (SAIC); DAVID H. FINE, VICE PRESIDENT, THERMEDICS, INC.; AND JOHN G. PADERSON, SALES AND MARKETING MANAGER, ION TRACK INSTRUMENTS (ITI)

Mr. BOZORGMANESH. Mr. Chairman, and members of the subcommittee, my name is Hadi Bozorgmanesh, and I am a corporate vice president of Science Applications International Corporation, an employee-owned company based in California. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the subcommittee today to present to you SAIC's effort in research, development and demonstration of the Thermal Neutron Activation, commonly known as TNA, Explosive Detection System, and express our determination and capability to manufacture large quantities of TNA during the next 18 months. First about SAIC and its employees. Employee owned and operated, SAIC is a diversified high-technology company focusing primarily in the areas of national security, energy, environment and health, and high technology products. Founded in 1969 by a small group of research scientists, SAIC has grown into an organization of more than 10,000 people with revenues in excess of $850 million. SAIC is truly a unique company, probably the only company of its size that is so thoroughly owned and controlled by the employees and so thoroughly dedicated to the national interest.

Mr. Chairman, for the past three and a half years SAIC has been Federal Aviation Administration's prime contractor to develop a practical way to detect explosives in airline luggage and cargo. In winning competitively the opportunity to work with the FAA to develop the TNA explosive detectors, SAIC committed to an aggressive but orderly program of research, development and demonstration culminating in a highly successful FAA-run tests of two prototypes at the Los Angeles and San Francisco airport from June of 1987 to March of 1988.

The science and technology of thermal neutron activation is neither very new nor very revolutionary. The application of TNA in a number of industrial and scientific arenas has been with us for decades. For example, in 1977 SAIC developed the first TNA unit for on-line analysis of the sulfur and BTU content of coal and other minerals. Today, products utilizing TNA are in routine operations

coal, cement and other industries. What is exciting, however, is the tremendous advances in automated signal processing achieved through the FAA/SAIC collaboration leading to the development of a highly precise and rapid explosive detection system using the TNA technique.

Indeed the capability of the TNA to detect all types of civilian and military explosives with an extremely high degree of accuracy, better than 95 percent, and a low false alarm rate of less than four percent was demonstrated in over 40,000 tests performed by FAA in the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports with actual bags on a real-time basis. It should be emphasized that the system can be operated at close to 100 percent detection probability with a modest increase in the false alarm rate. Another noteworthy conclusion from the FAA test was that this high success rate was attained in finding minimal qualities of explosives, and the rate would be even higher in detecting larger amounts of explosive material. In addition, in all cases the operationally acceptable rate of 10 bags per minute was maintained.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to clear some discussion that went on earlier about the rate of detection. The issue was that maybe these are slow. Six seconds per bag compares very well with four seconds per bag for x-rays. In other words the difference between the two techniques is about two seconds per bag. And this can even be further increased as we go on on the development of the actual systems. I would also note that the EDS automatically alerts the operator in the event of a possible explosive, removing the problem of operator fatigue associated with the x-ray screening system.

In June of 1988, based on the remarkable performance of the two TNA prototypes, the FAA requested SAIC to build and deliver five TNA systems by mid 1990. Indeed, SAIC had learned much from the experience of the two prototypes and responded to the request with a smaller and more rugged design which is being implemented in the on-going construction.

The tragic destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 reminded us all of the vulnerability of our air carriers to acts of sabotage using the awesome destructive power of plastic explosives. Experts say that our present security equipment was not designed to detect plastic bombs and by-and-large is incapable of its detection with any significant degree of accuracy.

Immediately after this tragedy the FAA Administrator announced the agency's decision to order an additional TNA unit and expedite the delivery of all six units over six months. SAIC agreed to meet this challenge and build, test and deliver all six units beginning in June of 1989 and ending in January of 1990.

Mr. Chairman, SAIC is pleased to inform this committee that the construction of these units is well under way and is on schedule. The initial unit will be delivered and installed by June of this year at New York's JFK airport. SAIC will deliver the remainder of the six units at a rate of approximately one per month through 1989. On January 9, 1989, in response to the Pan Am tragedy, SAIC presented to the Administrator of the FAA a plan that would commit SAIC to immediately mobilize its technical and financial resources to manufacture large quantities of TNA machines beginning at the onset of the calendar year 1990. To be more specific,

SAIC proposed to invest in the necessary manpower and facilities to build TNA units at the rate of a minimum of 50 and as many as 100 per year beginning January, 1990. SAIC stipulated that, in order to meet such a schedule, there must be an indicated commitment by the Government and/or the Aviation Industry by June of 1989 to enhance airline security to meet the plastic explosive challenge. SAIC cannot commit the substantial resources necessary to build large quantities of TNA systems without adequate assurance of potential market.

Över the last several months, much has been heard about the need to use TNA technology for explosive detection. Testimony by the FAA and the DOT, who are thoroughly familiar with the performance and capability of these systems, have praised the ability of the TAN as the only reliable method for detection of plastic and other types of explosives. Virtually every organization concerned about secure air travel has testified about the immediate need for implementation of the TNA machines at national and international airports in order to protect U.S. carriers. We have heard discussions of various options for funding including a two dollar security surcharge; tapping the Aviation Trust Fund; direct appropriation; and a proposed rulemaking requiring the airlines to purchase.

SAIC does not claim the competence to recommend any of the above. However, in conclusion I would like to reiterate SAIC's readiness and commitment to mobilize all necessary resources at its disposal to build and install TNA systems in an expeditious manner in response to national policy and need.

Once again, I appreciate being afforded the opportunity to present SAIC's viewpoint in light of the security threat against aviation. I would be pleased to respond to any questions you may have.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Thank you very much. Do you want to show the video now, or later?

Mr. BOZORGMANESH. It's at your pleasure, sir. It probably is better to show it now.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Why don't we do that right now, and then we'll proceed to the other testimony?

[Video presentation made.]

Mr. OBERSTAR. That certainly is a very graphic and powerful demonstration. As the video says, had it been in place, it would have been able to detect the explosive suspected of being used in the Pan Am situation.

Mr. BOZORGMANESH. Based on the information we have on the quantity, and the way that it was packaged, we could have easily detected it.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Are there means of packaging an explosive of this nature, whether they check Semtex or other similar explosives, are there ways of packaging them to camouflage the presence to your device?

Mr. BOZORGMANESH. Mr. Chairman, the beauty of this technology is that it is totally independent of how it's packaged and where it's hidden, because the neutrons are very penetrating, so are the characteristic gamma rays that come out, so you cannot really package it in a way that the neutrons will not reach them.

Mr. OBERSTAR. If it were packaged in lead, the lead would show up in and of itself, and would be an indicator that there's something amiss?

Mr. BOZORGMANESH. Well, the lead happens to be very transparent to neutrons, so that really is not a problem. They absorb x-rays, but neutrons is not a problem.

Mr. OBERSTAR. I see. Fine.

We'll have further questions later.

Dr. Fine?

Mr. FINE. My name is David Fine. I've vice president and leader of the sixty-man technical team at Thermedics, developing the new generation of FAA and Department of State explosives vapor detectors.

On behalf of Thermedics, I'm grateful to present this testimony to this panel on our current work. I'll summarize my statements and ask that the entire statement be placed on the record.

Mr. OBERSTAR. It will be included as already indicated earlier today.

Mr. FINE. In 1984 the FAA realized that because plastic explosives were increasingly being used by terrorists, there was a need to develop new advanced vapor detection technology, which would have the sensitivity to detect TNT and the plastic explosives directly. It was judged that the sensitivity of this advanced vapor technology would have to be improved by several orders of magnitude over the previous technology, from about one part in ten to the eleven, to one part in ten to the fourteen.

Let me put in perspective what one part in ten to the fourteen means. It means the equivalent of identifying one grain of sand on a beach 22 feet wide, six feet deep and one mile long.

Thermedics won the resulting competitive request for proposal, and in 1984 began to develop FAA's walk-in portal for screening airline passengers for explosives. Support from the FAA to date has totalled over $4 million. It was not known at the start of the project whether even a thousand-fold improvement would be sufficient.

The project was successful and led to the first prototype which was extensively tested at Thermedics in the summer of 1988, followed by a limited field trial under FAA sponsorship at Logan Airport with 2000 airline passengers. This test which took place in October of 1988 with a false alarm rate being about 0.05 percent. Although the sensitivity design goal was met and in fact exceeded, more work remains to be done than was originally anticipated. The entire project that remains could be completed on an accelerated basis at a cost of about $4.8 million over a fifteen-month period.

At the end of the Logan test, the phase of the walk-in portal project, the contract funding came to an end. We have been told informally that FAA has $600,000 available for this fiscal year, with a possibility of another $1.7 in Fiscal Year 1990. With this level of R&D funding, it would take three years after award of the continuing contract to complete the project, instead of the 15 months, which is possible. Meanwhile, there has been no activity on the development of FAA's passenger vapor screening system since the fall of 1988.

Thermedics won a second competitive contract from the FAA in the area of carry-on luggage. This seed project for half a million dollars was also successful, and it was shown possible, in principle, to construct an automated conveyor-based system for screening carry-on luggage for plastic explosives. The proposal was submitted to the FAA to engineer such a system in July of last year. Thermedics was advised informally, at that time, that it was unlikely that there would be further development of a carry-on system due to lack of R&D funds. A new proposal for carry-on luggage, with a much accelerated schedule, and costing about $4 million, was submitted following the Pan Am disaster. An interim research and development phase on this project for $300,000 was awarded last week to Thermedics.

There is a third Thermedics project in which FAA has an interest. This is the one funded by the Department of State. The Department of State has provided $6.8 million for the development of an EGIS, an advanced portable explosives vapor system. The EGIS is a flexible system and should be capable of assisting airport security in many screening applications within an airport. It was originally designed to detect explosives hidden in cars. The system is effective for screening checked or carry-on luggage for the presence of concealed plastic explosives. Also, the portable sampling probe allows security personnel to screen the plane itself including aircraft seats, lavatories, or hidden cavities for the presence of explosives. The test data on the Department of State system, and the theory of operation have been classified.

The Department of State's EGIS system has gone through four generations in the past four years; and the final equipment is now engineered for mass production. In fact, the first production are due to be delivered to the Department of State next week. Thermedics has the capacity to ship up to 75 machines this year, and up to 1,000 in 1990. The units will sell for about $124,000 each.

It must be appreciated that explosives detectors, and I mean all types of detectors, can never be foolproof. Each technology has significant weaknesses. These can depend on the weight of the explosive, the shape, the wrapping, how it is assembled, all these things impact on detection. However, x-ray, the new generation of vapor, the new TNA, all working together complement each other and should close each other's loopholes, and together offer significantly improved security.

In sum, with respect to EGIS, because of the foresight of the FAA and the Department of State in developing this new technology, it is now a ready-to-go system just about entering production. It will become available in quantities this year. If FAA and Thermedics receive the R&D funding, the portal screening system for airline passengers could also be available as a production unit in 1990. If funds can be found for the proposed development of the conveyor system for carry-on luggage, it too could be available by the end of 1990. These advanced vapor systems, together with other security equipment, would complete the explosives detection package and provide airports, for the first time, with an effective security net against terrorist bombings.

We urge this committee to ensure that in this time of budgetary cutbacks to meet the mandate of Gramm-Rudman, DOT and FAA

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