ENDICOTT, N.Y. -- When it comes to homeland security, many experts say the weaknesses in air travel comes from mistakes made during luggage and cargo detection. SureScan says after many years, they've developed technology that promises a faster and more efficient way of scanning for explosives.
"We saw what happened in Mumbai. There are terrorists who are trying to figure out the next way to hurt us. And our job is to be a step ahead of them and that's what SureScan helps do," said Senator Charles Schumer.
It can be tedious screening through the mass amounts of baggage and cargo coming into airports. Triggered by impatience, that process is sometimes rushed along, which can increase the chances of explosives and other dangerous devices getting through. Representatives from SureScan, a subsidiary of Endicott Interconnect, say they've come up with faster and more efficient equipment called the x1000.
"SureScan equipment helps protect critical infrastructure by screening baggage for explosives at high throughput rates up to 1,000 times per hour. That's significantly faster than the competitive equipment out there today," said SureScan Corporation CEO Jay McNamara.
A company headquartered in Endicott has been awarded more than $5 million for its baggage screening technology. SureScan won the TSA contract and our Karen Lee was there as they made the announcement.
After four years of development and federal lobbying, that technology is now being backed by the TSA, which recently awarded the company $5.2 million.
"A lot of hard work and sacrifice and my hat is off to you. Job well done," McNamara said.
"The contract prompted SureScan to look for 10 new employees in the engineering and software programming field. And salaries will go from $65,000 to $100,000. And once they receive certification, they say there are many more jobs to come.
"The increase we've seen in Endicott Interconnect's employment will be dwarfed by the greater increase we will see should this machine be certified and I have every reason to believe it will," Senator Schumer said.
"The opportunity will be to sell machines to the USA through the TSA, as well as to sell machines abroad. So there's a big market opportunity for SureScan Corporations," McNamara said.
In a few weeks, the x1000 will be sent to the TSA in Washington for testing. Two other companies were also awarded the screening contract.