There was no other equipment available at the time. In fact, the machines they are using at most airports, the Egis II, made by Thermo Dynamics, is primarily used in labratory settings. Thermo Dynamics only made about 100-200 machines a year before the TSA came into being. Their machines are state of the art, but they are designed to do no more than 5-10 samples an hour. They had to boost production of the machines by 1700% to meet the need. Given that when the start-up of TSA happened, things were rushed, they did choose the Cadillac of explosive detection devices. So when you complainers jump up and down about the machines, remember, there were NO OTHER devices out there. There was NO MARKET for such a machine before 9/11.