Companies Can't Make Bomb Detectors Fast Enough, USA Today Says
By Bill Murray
Washington, Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Invision Technologies Inc. and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., the only U.S. makers of explosives-detection equipment, may have difficulty producing enough systems to equip all U.S. airports by the December of 2002 deadline set by Congress, USA Today reported.
As many as 2,000 machines will be needed by the end of next year, and Invision, which controls 90 to 95 percent of the U.S. market and L-3, which installed its first system in Rome last year, say they can only produce 1,100 units between them unless work is given to other manufactures, the paper said.
About 150 bomb detection machines, which cost about $1 million each, have been installed at 47 of the nation's 546 airports during the past 5 years, the newspaper said. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has spent $445 million on them and related equipment, USA Today said.
About 1 billion bags pass through U.S. airports annually, with less than 10 percent screened for explosives, the newspaper said.
(USAT B1 11/19) For the Web site of USA Today, click {USAT
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