How industry is helping to shape today and tomorrow’s airport security

In a globalised world the security of our aviation network is vital to ensuring the safety of millions of citizens and the health of our troubled economy. The aviation industry directly contributes £11.4bn to UK GDP and employs over 500,000 people, and it is partly through the efforts and advances of the security industry that this successful sector of the UK is able to continue operating.

It should therefore come as no surprise that the security industry’s involvement in airport security contributes to the decisions made by the world’s governments on how best to ensure the safety of these important focal points for today’s global society. What may not be so widely known is that the UK security supply community has a vital role to play in ensuring the security of the global aviation network. The UK boasts a broad range of security capabilities and solutions that can be deployed in the support of aviation security, and that can also help the country out of recession. To achieve both these objectives, the UK must maintain the levels of strategic advice that industry is providing to the government. We must also think more holistically about the industrial elements of the design and operation of our aviation security system and recognise how the rules within it place limits on what we can achieve.

A|D|S in its role as the trade organisation advancing the UK aerospace, defence, space and security sectors, is actively taking part in this debate. Representing over 450 large, medium and small companies supplying to the public and private sector security markets, A|D|S was formed in October 2009 as the result of the merger of the Association of Police and Public Security Suppliers (APPSS), the Defence Manufacturers Association (DMA) and the Society of British Aerospace Companies. This wealth of experience in the security industry is further enhanced by the British Aviation Group (BAG). BAG, which is a part of A|D|S, includes a membership of 200 companies many of which have a direct and long-standing interest in airport service markets worldwide. Recognition of A|D|S’ presence in the UK security industry, has further been recognised by the Home Office Scientific Development Branch which has asked A|D|S to co-organise this year’s HOSDB Exhibition in Farnborough.

Any security response to the threat posed to today and tomorrow’s airport security must be multi-faceted, with an all encompassing and agile approach adopted, which is why it is important to consider how industry can contribute.

We can recognise the breadth of capabilities that the UK security industry has to offer to understand the many important aspects of aviation security. Though the UK industry is a well known world leader in the manufacture of security detection equipment, such as the hotly debated full body scanners and x-ray explosive detection systems, these are only one part of the whole solution. Equipment and technologies can never be the panacea for airport security’s problems, but they are an integral part to the necessarily multi-faceted response.

As the nature and diversity of threats grow and change, it is increasingly more important that we think of airport security as an integrated system, rather than in separate compartments such as scanning, surveillance etc, and that an adequate level of investment is maintained to ensure the success of this approach.

What could be incorporated within such a system?
Industry in the UK has a much broader range of capabilities at its disposal than is commonly thought. Solutions include the standoff detection of suicide bombers using technology; blast mitigation engineering that protects the facades and sensitive areas of airports; and behavioural science. All of these are important elements of airport security. Intelligence will still be crucial, as will the right systems provided by the members of A|D|S that can process the information gathered quickly and accurately.

Furthermore, let us not underestimate the enhancements that are being made to existing technologies. Whilst not always popular in the public psyche, the deployment of CCTV at airports and even on board aircraft is an important element of the response. CCTV is a key part of the policing operation at airports – as too is the deployment of innovative communication and information-sharing systems, all of which technologies contribute to ensuring that the airport security system works well and smoothly. It is important that an environment for innovation continues and that industry is given the opportunity to flourish, which can only be possible through adequate investment.

Looking to operational issues, it is useful to see how industry is informing the airport security debate on a strategic level. The UK security industry is supporting the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) in providing through RISC – the UK Security and Resilience Industry Suppliers’ Community – the expert advice that needs to flow from industry to government on the capabilities that it now depends upon.

As the March 2009 UK Strategy for Countering International Terrorism (CONTEST) spelled out, new ways of thinking have emerged on how government working together with industry can meet the challenges ahead. Since its formation in 2007, RISC has facilitated and helped to establish a strong dialogue between government and industry, including in the field of airport security.

The importance of such dialogue between government and industry should never be underestimated, particularly under the current economic conditions. Through such consultation industry has been able to develop a greater understanding of the level of terrorist threat and the nation’s security priorities, which in turn enables industry to understand where it should focus current and future investment.

By its very nature, such debates between HMG and industry will frequently take place in security cleared environments, and rightly so, but there are public issues associated with aviation security where greater light could be shed. There is a delicate balance between security measures and the appropriate protection to privacy, of which industry is fully cognisant – our role in the “security vs liberty” debate is after all unavoidable, if only because new capabilities can be regarded with instant suspicion. However, industry is also aware that there is a danger in being too open about current capabilities because there is the potential risk of exposing gaps in the current security arrangements.

A|D|S believes that the answer to this should be an increase in awareness of the multifaceted nature of aviation security, which should extend to the broad range of existing and emerging capabilities that industry is capable of providing to deliver aviation security. Public awareness is ultimately essential, as in the end it is society that will decide what security measures are acceptable and how much it wishes to pay for security in our skies.

The economic conditions will play into this but the level of public debate also needs to be extended by our political leaders to ensure that society is fully informed about the risks in the current security landscape, and the investment that will be needed to meet them. Following the attempted attack on an airliner over Detroit at Christmas, industry accepts that technology needs to be effective while non-intrusive and believes that during this time of constrained resources, the most efficient way of achieving this is if security is developed with the public’s consent. Did you know that a poll for the Financial Times in March 2010 stated that 60 per cent of Britons favoured the introduction of body scanners? As well as deciding what precautions and security measures are acceptable, the public should also consider how much it is prepared to pay for aviation security.

Under the long standing government policy that ‘costs lie where they fall’, expenditure on aviation security lands largely upon the shoulders of the private sector, be it airports or the airlines. With multiple airline and airport operators, the difficulty in measuring the level of resource dedicated to aviation security is high, particularly when one realises that airport security is also exposed to significant commercial constraints arising from the current economic conditions.

This is not to say that private operators are ignoring their responsibility to provide and invest in airport security – far from it. According to Virgin Atlantic Airways in 2005, European airlines and airports are paying out £3 billion for additional anti-terrorist security measures imposed by EU governments following the tragic events of 11 September 2001. In February 2009, the European Commission quoted ACI-Europe figures which suggest that security costs now represent up to 35 per cent of overall airport operating costs instead of 5 per cent to 8 per cent prior to the events of September 2001. However, is such a level of investment in security realistic under the current economic conditions, especially in the context of the widely reported substantial decline in passenger numbers?

This is an important question for industry, for while government issues regulations on the new security measures that will be implemented, it is the private sector and police forces who will be expected to foot the bill. It seems clear that in the context of the economic conditions we must start thinking more about the extent to which private airlines and airports will be able to bear new costs arising from new requirements.

Whilst international comparisons are difficult to make, central government through TRANSEC was allocated a budget of around £19m for transport security in 2007/8, which was dwarfed by its counterparts in central government in the United States – the Transportation Security Administration – which had a budget of around $6.3bn in 2007. A|D|S has noted with interest that the US stimulus package is providing funds for investment in industrial capabilities for domestic security purposes to the Transport Security Administration, including $1 billion for explosives detection systems and checkpoint screening equipment.

In the UK, we do not have the luxury of such resources but we must create the conditions for ongoing investment in aviation security so that the innovation of the UK security industry can flourish. This could be done by the UK adopting a world-leading position in the development of international security standards. Once this is achieved, we can ensure that the UK security industry can maintain and even improve its place in the competitive global security market. 

As one can see, there are numerous constraints at play for both government and industry. However, continuing the current interaction and further development of this partnership on security matters, there is little doubt that industrial capability, as demonstrated by A|D|S’ members and the UK security sector as a whole, will be able to ensure our ‘security in the skies’.