Smiths Detection News

Innovative new ontainer scanning technology is being developed for the CORE (Consistently Optimized REsilient Secure Global Supply-Chains) European Research Project by Smiths Detection, a leader in detecting weapons, biohazards, radioactive material, narcotics and contraband. Smiths Detection is designing both hardware and software for the next generation of container scanners, which will speed-up throughput and improve detection. The aim is to verify as quickly and accurately as possible whether a container holds only its declared legal cargo and is not harboring contraband…

US-based Smiths Detection wins contract from U. S. Navy for METMF(R) NEXGEN additional mobile weather information systems. Smiths Detection announce a US$7.6-million contract to supply the U.S. Navy with additional mobile weather information systems to support mission planning and military operations for the Marine Corps. Manufactured in Smiths Detection’s Edgewood, Md. plant, the systems are due for delivery by July 2013. The Meteorological Mobile Facility (Replacement) Next…

Edgewood, Md. - Smiths Detection today named Sal Cipres as Head of Global Programs, which oversees all Smiths Detection program efforts for transportation, military, ports and borders, emergency response and critical infrastructure markets worldwide. Cipres will lead the development of proposal strategies and the delivery of products and systems to major government customers within cost, schedule and technical performance parameters. He is the former General Manager of Smith Detection’s Edgewood, Md., facility and Director of Global Chemical and Biological Programs. “Sal’s appointment reinforces Smiths Detection’s continued role as a global leader in security technology, detection systems and services,” said Mal Maginnis, President, Smiths Detection.

Smiths Detection announced the award of a contract for its FirstView early warning chemical threat detection and video management system to be installed at the Port of Providence, R.I. Funded through a competitive Department of Homeland Security grant, the system will alert authorities to chemical hazards in the port area and provide real-time video and sensor data to first responders and emergency personnel. It combines Smiths Detection’s chemical detection capabilities (Centurion II) and FirstView video and sensor management software with Raytheon’s Athena command and control system to monitor traffic in Narragansett Bay. Using radar…

Smiths Detection announced a $10.6m U.S. Government contract for its mobile, high-energy cargo screeners which will be deployed across the country to inspect inbound and outbound shipping containers and trucks. The HCV Mobile inspection vehicles use high-energy X-ray scanning designed to optimize security checks at ports, airports and border crossings. The systems are used to inspect trucks, containers and other vehicles for contraband, weapons, explosives and narcotics. (www.smithsdetection.com)

Buys US hazardous material detection specialist for $75M Smiths Group is acquiring the business and assets of SensIR Technologies LLC, a manufacturer of infrared-based analysers, for a total of $75 million (£41m). The newly acquired business will add significantly to the range of technologies and equipment of Smiths Detection, one of the company's four operating divisions. "The second acquisition for Smiths Detection this year is a further step in building a technology-led business to serve the diverse detection market," commented Keith Butler-Wheelhouse, chief executive of Smiths Group. SensIR supplies analysers for the identification of potentially hazardous substances in solid and liquid form.

The rush to shore up security along all links of the transportation chain — and the multi-billion dollar budgets that go with them — have naturally brought companies out of the woodwork in what some see as a dash for cash. While the Department of Homeland Security, still relatively in its infancy, has been prudent in the award of contracts to date, the proliferation of funds seems to be loosening in the estimation of many interested parties, and companies that can exhibit a long and strong history of supplying integrated security solutions should obviously have a strategic advantage. Smiths Detection is such a company, offering a history of successfully providing security solutions to both civil and military clients, dealing from a vast product and system arsenal.

Smiths Detection offers HCV-Mobile, a high-energy mobile cargo screening system designed to scan more than 25 loaded trucks and containers per hour. Beginning in January 2005, the system will be tested and exhibited in select U.S. ports and evaluation centers. The 3.8 MEV system combines mobility, radiation detection capabilities and high-energy X-rays that can penetrate more than 10.5-in. of steel. The HCV-Mobile generates high-resolution images of a container’s contents and is designed to assists in the identification of conventional explosives, weapons and contraband such as illegal drugs. It also assists in the recognition of radiological dispersion devices (dirty bombs) and other nuclear weapons or materials.

James Rall, of Hydroacustics Inc., of New York, explains uses for the Proteus ROV roaming ocean vehicle, used for exploration with cameras and lights. The ROV is controlled by a joystick. PROVIDENCE — Jason Cedro clicked on a computer mouse at the Rhode Island Convention Center yesterday and on the screen appeared a live, gull’s-eye view of Narragansett Bay, from a camera perched miles to the south at Beavertail State Park, in Jamestown. He clicked again to order the camera, by wireless connection, to pan the Bay, then focus more closely on a power boat motoring across the water beneath a blue sky. From the same screen, Cedro was also able to obtain a live view of the Bay’s activity from Prudence Island, another from the area around the Pell Bridge in Newport.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office on awarded $113m in contracts to five companies for human portable radiation detection systems for use at the nation's ports. Human Portable Radiation Detection Systems (HPRDS) program contracts will be awarded to Ametec AMT of Oak Ridge, Tenn., Science Application International Corporation of San Diego Calif., Sanmina-SCI of Huntsville, Ala., Target Instruments, Inc. of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Smiths Detection Inc. of Pine Brook, N.J. DNDO anticipates purchasing and deploying roughly 1,000 next generation handheld systems and 200 backpack systems through the HPRDS program. The portable technology will be used primarily by U.S.

Smiths Detection has been awarded a $23m U.S. Government contract for HCV Mobile II trucks, high-energy mobile cargo screening systems that will be deployed to several strategic ports throughout the country. The HCV Mobile II is a second generation system that meets all U.S highway standards and can be driven from one port to another at normal freeway speeds. The HCV Mobile II system designed to generate high-resolution images of a container’s contents. The images are further enhanced through proprietary software designed to assist in the identification of contraband. Systems can also be deployed with integrated radiation detection capability.

Smiths Detection-LiveWave has been awarded a contract to engineer and deploy a prototype security solution for the Rhode Island Port Security Wireless Communications Network (RIPSWCN). As part of a one-year pilot program, the system will interconnect with land-based communications networks to allow government agencies and emergency personnel to share and distribute real-time data throughout Narragansett Bay. A collaborative project of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency (EMA), Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC), the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM), the Rhode Island Department of Administration (DOA), the RIPSWCN partnership was created as a demonstration project funded by an $856,000 grant from the U.S.