ABSTRACT
The detection of hidden explosives has become a subject of major interest in recent years. Incidents involving the explosive sabotage of airplanes, terrorist attacks on buildings, and suicide bombers attacking crowds of people or busses, have been making headlines with far more regularity than anyone but the terrorists would like. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has the lead responsibility in developing technologies, procedures, and training to detect explosives. There are agencies with similar responsibilities in most countries. Naturally, the primary concern is the detection of explosives being secreted on to aircraft. Many of the technologies being developed for this purpose, however, also have application to other areas where one needs to protect against explosive attacks. X-ray systems are used to protect court room entrances and trace based systems are used for detecting persons smuggling explosives across borders or other control points.
