Originally Posted by FBO
It is expected that advanced handheld screening systems could incorporate one or more orthogonal technologies to detect threat objects such as bulk explosives, metal threat objects and/or non-metal threat objects.
Originally Posted by
Pesky Monkey
It's a wand of some type. Magic perhaps?
Yeah, it would have to be.
A handheld puffer (maybe something that pulls air in and analyses it as it flows through*) would do the 'bulk explosives' part and a HHMD would obviously cover the 'metal threat objects' part. But I'm not sure that combining the two would be small enough to qualify as "handheld."
(*I don't know how feasible that would be; just a guess.)
It would still need a handheld NoS-type device for the 'non-metal threat' and I simply can't see that being feasible on its own in the near future, much less small enough to be combined with the other two sensors.
Also, I assume that this device would need run on battery power for at least 2 hours at a time, which further restricts the technology options.
Or they're just putting out this tender so that when there are no plausible products, they can continue with the grope-a-thon and say "we tried to come up with an alternative."
The most likely outcome, of course, is the Emperor's New Clothes approach; some company produces a plastic replica that makes a random beep (at $$$$$$ each) and the TSA drones wave them around as if they're doing something.
