DHS to test air cargo screening processes

WASHINGTON, March 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is launching its third pilot project to test technology and techniques for passenger plane air cargo screening.

The pilot will begin this spring at Cincinnati airport, the department said in a statement this week.

Homeland Security has a $30 million program to develop technology and work processes to screen air cargo carried on passenger planes for explosives. Launched last June, the program is already running two other pilots, at San Francisco and Seattle-Tacoma airports.

The Cincinnati pilot "is designed to test the screening of significant amounts of cargo within an air cargo facility and will focus on areas to include assessing the flow and speed of cargo screening," said the statement.

"Testing of this nature will provide critical knowledge to help the Transportation Security Administration make future decisions," the statement said, adding the department was "interested in data that illustrates economic and operational impacts to air carriers from enhanced screening levels."

The pilot at San Francisco is testing x-ray systems, explosive trace detectors, and automated explosives detection systems. At Seattle-Tacoma, according to the statement "the focus is on detecting hidden intruders and stowaways."

The program is a collaboration between the department's Science and Technology Directorate and the Transportation Security Administration, along with personnel from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Transportation Security Laboratory.

Homeland Security is under pressure to deliver solutions in the air cargo area, which senior members of the new Democratic leadership in Congress see as an important vulnerability, and will address in the new Sept. 11 reform bill -- if it does not get vetoed by President Bush.