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PANEL ON TECHNICAL REGULATION OF EXPLOSIVES-DETECTION SYSTEMS
HARRY MARTZ (chair),
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
KATE ALVARADO,
DNV Certification, Inc., Long Beach, California
JOHN BAER,
International Management & Engineering Consultants, Annandale, Virginia
SUSAN DART,
Dart Technology Strategies, Newport Beach, California
ROBERT GAGNE,
Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland
DONALD LEBELL, Consultant,
New York, New York
ARMIN PFOH,
General Electric Research & Development, Niskayuna, New York
ANTHONY SHUMSKAS,
BDM Engineering Services, Mclean, Virginia
MICHAEL STORY,
Thermo Instrument Systems, Inc., San Jose, California
Technical Consultant
JOSEPH A. NAVARRO,
JAN Associates, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland
National Materials Advisory Board Liaison
JAMES WAGNER,
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
National Materials Advisory Board Staff
SANDRA HYLAND, senior program manager
CHARLES T. HACH, staff officer
BONNIE SCARBOROUGH, staff officer
JANICE M. PRISCO, project assistant
ROBERT E. SCHAFRIK, director (until November 1997)
RICHARD CHAIT, director (after February 1998)
Government Liaisons
PAUL JANKOWSKI,
Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey
ALAN K. NOVAKOFF,
Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey
ARMEN A. SAHAGIAN,
Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, D.C.
NATIONAL MATERIALS ADVISORY BOARD
ROBERT A. LAUDISE (chair),
Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New Jersey
G.J. ABBASCHIAN,
University of Florida, Gainesville
MICHAEL I. BASKES,
Sandia/Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
JESSE (JACK) BEAUCHAMP,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
FRANCIS DiSALVO,
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
EARL DOWELL,
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
EDWARD C. DOWLING,
Cyprus Amax Minerals Company, Englewood, Colorado
THOMAS EAGER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
ANTHONY G. EVANS,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
JOHN A. GREEN,
The Aluminum Association, Washington, D.C.
SIEGFRIED S. HECKER,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
JOHN H. HOPPS, JR.,
Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia
MICHAEL JAFFE,
Hoechst Celanese Corporation, Summit, New Jersey
SYLVIA M. JOHNSON,
SRI International, Menlo Park, California
LISA KLEIN,
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
HARRY LIPSITT,
Wright State University, Yellow Springs, Ohio
ALAN MILLER,
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Seattle, Washington
RICHARD S. MULLER,
University of California, Berkeley
ROBERT PFAHL,
Motorola, Schaumberg, Illinois
ELSA REICHMANIS,
Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New Jersey
KENNETH L. REIFSNIDER,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
JAMES WAGNER,
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
BILL G.W. YEE,
Pratt & Whitney, West Palm Beach, Florida
Preface
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation was established in 1958 to promote and ensure the safety of air travel. One objective of the FAA is to reduce the vulnerability of the civil air transport system to terrorist threats by employing procedural and technical means to detect and counter threats. The development of systems and devices to meet this objective was first authorized in the Air Transportation Security Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-366). The role of the FAA in aviation security was increased by the 1985 International Security and Development Cooperation Act (Public Law 99-83) that allowed for the expansion of the FAA' s research and development program.
The destruction of Pan American Airlines Flight 103 on December 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland, resulted in the creation of the President's Commission on Airline Security and Terrorism in 1989 and the incorporation of some of the recommendations of that commission into the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-604). This act directs the FAA to develop technologies to detect explosives in checked baggage and, when these technologies are shown to meet FAA certification criteria, mandate the deployment of explosives-detection systems (EDSs)1 in U.S. airports. In response to this directive, the FAA developed a set of certification criteria for automated bulk explosives-detection equipment, that is, systems that, without intervention by a human operator, detect explosives concealed in checked baggage. In 1994, the InVision CTX-5000 demonstrated in laboratory testing at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center (FAA Technical Center) that it was capable of performing at the specified level and was certified by the FAA as an EDS. The FAA desires a mechanism to ensure that subsequent copies of FAA certified EDSs meet certification criteria as they are produced and deployed and that they continue to meet these criteria over their lifetime in an operational environment.
The FAA requested that the National Research Council prepare a report assessing the configuration-management and performance-verification options for the development and regulation of commercially available EDSs and other systems designed for detection of explosives. The Panel on Technical Regulation of Explosives-Detection Systems was established by the National Materials Advisory Board of the National Research Council to (1) assess the advantages and disadvantages of methods used for configuration management and performance verification relative to the FAA' s needs for explosives-detection equipment regulation, (2) outline a "quality management program" that the FAA can follow that includes configuration management and performance verification and that will encourage commercial development and improvement of explosives-detection equipment while ensuring that such systems are manufactured to meet FAA certification requirements, and (3) outline a performance-verification strategy that the FAA can follow to ensure that EDSs continue to perform at certification specifications in the airport environment.
The Panel on Technical Regulation of Explosives-Detection Systems developed this report based on (1) panel meetings and technical literature provided to the panel by individual panel members, the FAA, and the National Research Council staff; and (2) presentations made by the FAA, manufacturers, and other experts who briefed the panel on existing FAA regulatory policies regarding security, bag-gage-screening technologies, quality systems and standards, and testing of explosives-detection equipment. Two members of the panel are also members of the National Research Council's Committee on Commercial Aviation Security, which oversaw this study, and provided the panel with committee findings that were relevant to the panel's task. In addition, the Chair of the Committee on Commercial Aviation
Security briefed the panel on committee findings and participated in one panel meeting.
The panel conducted five meetings between March 1996 and March 1997 to gather information used in developing this report. The panel also dedicated substantial time and effort to deliberating over their findings to develop, refine, and gain consensus on the conclusions and recommendations contained in this report.
Early in the study process, the panel recognized that the airport environment, like the social and political environment that surrounds it, is unlikely to remain static. Accordingly, the pace and magnitude of explosives-detection equipment deployments and the consequent priority of, and options for, regulating EDSs is scenario dependent. Thus, ideally, con-figuration-management and performance-verification strategies adopted by the FAA should be sufficiently robust and flexible to accommodate a range of scenarios as these scenarios shift over time.
HARRY MARTZ, CHAIR
PANEL ON TECHNICAL REGULATION OF
EXPLOSIVES-DETECTION SYSTEMS
Acknowledgments
The Panel on Technical Regulation of Explosives-Detection Systems would like to acknowledge the contributions of the individuals who contributed to this study, including the following speakers: Richard Beebe, Hewlett Packard; Admiral Cathal Flynn, Federal Aviation Administration; Keith Goll, Federal Aviation Administration; Matthew Hampton, General Accounting Office; Lok Koo, Federal Aviation Administration; Sarah Mowitt, Food and Drug Administration; Paul Polski, Federal Aviation Administration; Harvey Rudolph, Food and Drug Administration; Armen Sahagian, Federal Aviation Administration; Benno Stebler, Consultant; and James H. Williams, Federal Aviation Administration. The panel is also grateful for the contributions of the two contracting office technical representatives, Paul Jankowski and Alan K. Novakoff. In addition, the panel benefitted greatly from the technical insights of Lyle Malotky, Federal Aviation Administration, and Joseph A. Navarro, JAN Associates.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC's Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making the published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report: H. John Denman, AlliedSignal Aerospace; Robert E. Green, Johns Hopkins University; A. Nadeem Ishaque, General Electric Company; Frank H. Laukien, Bruker Analytical Systems; Steven W. Percy, Vivid Technologies; Maxine L. Savitz, AlliedSignal; Howard Strait, Loral Federal Systems; Benno Stebler, consultant; and Steven Wolff, InVision Technologies.
While the individuals listed above have provided constructive comments and suggestions, it must be emphasized that responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the NRC.
For organizing panel meetings and directing this report to completion, the panel would like to thank Charles Hach, Sandra Hyland, Janice Prisco, and Bonnie Scarborough, staff members of the National Materials Advisory Board.
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Tables, Figures, and Boxes
Tables
ES-1 |
Seven Proposed Testing Levels during the Life Cycle of an EDS |
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ES-2 |
Types and Purposes of Test Objects |
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2-1 |
Current Role of the FAA for EDSs and for Noncertified Explosives-Detection Equipment |
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4-1 |
Seven Proposed Testing Levels during the Life Cycle of an EDS |
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5-1 |
Types and Purposes of Test Objects |
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5-2 |
Criteria for Classifying Problems with Explosives-Detection Equipment |
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A-1 |
Mass Density and Composition of Common Explosive Materials and Selected Nonthreat Items |
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A-2 |
Tabular Description of Each Operational Subsystem of a Conceptual EDS Based on Visible Light Transmission |
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A-3 |
Tabular Description of Each Critical Module of an EDS Based on X-Ray CT |
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B-1 |
Examples of Client-Server Configuration Management Tools |
Figures
ES-1 |
Six phases in the life cycle of an EDS |
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ES-2 |
Configuration change process for an EDS during manufacture or operation |
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ES-3 |
Monitoring and verification testing for certification maintenance |
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ES-4 |
Responsibilities of stakeholders for moving from the engineering phase to certification |
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ES-5 |
Responsibilities of stakeholders for moving from certification to the manufacture of an EDS |
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ES-6 |
Responsibilities of stakeholders for moving from the manufacturing phase to the operational phase |
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3-1 |
Schematic block diagram of the operational subsystems comprising an explosives-detection system |
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4-1 |
Major divisions of configuration management |
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4-2 |
Graphical depiction of configuration control |
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4-3 |
Classes of configuration management tools |
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4-4 |
Factors contributing to the spread of the measured physical parameter(s) |
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4-5 |
ISO 9000 standards and guidelines |
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5-1 |
Five phases in the life cycle of an EDS |
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5-2 |
Activities over the life cycle of explosives-detection equipment |
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5-3 |
Responsibilities of stakeholders for moving from the engineering phase to certification |
5-4 |
Responsibilities of stakeholders for moving from certification to the manufacture of an EDS |
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5-5 |
Responsibilities of stakeholders for moving from the manufacturing phase to the operational phase |
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5-6 |
Configuration change process for an EDS during manufacture or operation |
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5-7 |
Monitoring and verification testing for certification maintenance |
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5-8 |
Schematic representation of the relationship between various levels of performance verification test objects and the ''real threat'' and the relative practicality and degree of uncertainty associated with them |
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A-1 |
Hydrogen and nitrogen content of various explosive and nonexplosive materials |
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A-2 |
View of a conceptual EDS based on visible light transmission |
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A-3 |
Front view of an EDS based on x-ray CT |
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A-4 |
Side view of an EDS based on x-ray CT |
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C-1 |
Schematic drawing of the statistical decision theory paradigm |
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F-1 |
Example standard test article for daily performance verification of bulk explosives-detection equipment |
Boxes
Acronyms
AAPM
American Association of Physicists in Medicine
CI
configuration item
CSCI
computer software configuration item
CT
computed tomography
EDS
explosives-detection system
FAA
Federal Aviation Administration
FDA
Food and Drag Administration
GMP
good manufacturing practices
ICAO
International Civil Aviation Organization
ISO
International Organization for Standardization
NRC
National Research Council
PD
probability of detection
PFA
probability of false alarm
SMPTE
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
TWA
Trans World Airlines