Access Control
& Security Systems

The Bush administration has restructured its spending on airport security, reducing plans to spend $1 million each on explosives detection machines and boosting reliance on cheaper, portable devices.

In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of commerce, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said the government plans to deploy up to 1,100 large explosives detection devices and 4,700 trace detection machines designed to test air and surfaces for explosive residue. Mineta's announcement enables the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to deploy both technologies in order to meet a year-end deadline to screen all checked baggage for explosives mandated by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act.

Said Carol Hallett, president and CEO of the Air Transport Association of America (ATA): "Secretary Mineta's announcement represents a wise and fully informed approach to explosive detection screening that is consistent with the provisions of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act."

Trace detection devices cost around $40,000 each, as compared to EDS machines built by InVision Technologies Inc., Newark, Calif., and L-3 Communications, New York, which cost $1 million to build and another $1 million to install. The government reportedly has installed 200 EDS machines in airports around the country, and has ordered 400 more.

"We believe that deployment of EDS to achieve 100 percent screening would have been difficult to achieve by [the federally mandated year-end deadline]," said InVision president and CEO Sergio Magistri. "We believe that the announced deployment plan is consistent with the realities of meeting the 2002 deadline."

Despite InVision's announcement that the volume of EDS units to be purchased this year is consistent with the company's outlook, InVision stock (NASDAQ: INVN) plummeted on the news. The stock dropped 20 percent on the day of Mineta's announcement and is currently trading at $21.47. The stock's 52-week high, achieved following the enactment of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, is $49.76.

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