[Engineering Feature]
Weapons Of Mass Protection
Homeland security looks to technology companies for innovative ways to combat potential terrorist strikes.
Uniformed security officers, bomb-sniffing dogs, and video cameras hanging off light poles may always be constant fixtures of homeland security. But the demand for new and innovative technologies has turned into big business—and it may grow larger in the wake of the London bombings and reported threats to the U.S.
In the short term, look for radiation-detecting pagers, RFID-based location tracking systems, unmanned robotic vehicles, and devices that sniff out electronic emissions. You also can expect a broader and much more sophisticated range of biometric devices, helicopters with heat-detecting cameras, long-range digital cameras, and electronic passports.
The difficult part is keeping track of the federal government's constantly changing priorities. In July, the U.S. Senate voted to adopt a $31.9 billion spending plan for homeland security in FY 2006. That's a few billion dollars more than the Administration's FY 2005 budget. However, the Senate earmarked only about $100 million for transit security for FY 2006. That's about $50 million less than in this year's budget, despite the London transit bombings in early July and concerns that U.S. transit systems may come under attack.
In his AAAS Report on Research and Development for FY 2006, senior analyst Kei Koizumi with the American Association for the Advancement of Science says the FY 2006 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget will require some tough choices in spending priorities.
The interagency Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) has earmarked seed funding to foster more technologically innovative projects around the country. A good percentage of this budget will go to heavyweight defense and aerospace contractors. Not only have these companies already developed technologies that can be adopted fairly easily to the homelandsecurity mission, they're also lobbying hard to get the work.
One of their better opportunities is unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which could be used for surveillance and assessing damage to buildings and other infrastructure. UAVs have been used very effectively in Iraq. Now, a joint NASA/DoD/Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) study will determine how to integrate them into U.S. commercial airspace.
Several major defense/aerospace firms long involved in developing and building UAVs are part of this program, called HALE ROA. Pentagon and NASA contractors also are working on robotic land vehicles that can sniff out explosives and perform other security-related tasks.
Billions of dollars have been distributed to states and local governments to help upgrade their security and first-response capabilities. High on their wish lists are portable radios that operate over a range of frequencies so law enforcement, fire, and other local and state emergency services can communicate effectively—not only among themselves, but with federal agencies such as the FBI and FEMA.
FOSTERING INNOVATION
Last March, Accel-A-Tech launched a program to identify and accelerate the development of new technologies in the homeland-security sector that also have attractive commercial potential. "We are looking for entrepreneurs and people with deep technology backgrounds that have innovative ideas for homeland security, national defense, and first-responder products," says Michael Harden, the company's CEO.
Harden says that Accel-A-Tech has spent the past two years developing a business model specifically focused on homeland security. It's currently seeking additional funding to establish a Center for Innovation to house new companies and line up potential investors for new companies. One sector likely to benefit is the mobile market.
"There's no question that homeland security has driven the need for mobile technologies," says chief technology officer Andrew Girson of InHand Electronics, a provider of lowpower embedded system-level software and hardware technologies for OEMs.
One InHand customer, Ahura Safety Corp., specializes in portable optical solutions for homeland security, communications, and other applications. Its First Defender is a self-contained, handheld instrument for first responders that uses spectroscopy technology to identify unknown liquids and solids.
Reprints
