ATSC, a British company, reportedly sold inoperative explosive detectors

09:36 GMT, January 25, 2010 defpro.com | Bad news for the British company, ATSC Ltd: in a televised report, BBC 2 revealed last week that the reference-card based explosive detectors sold by the company to the Iraqi government did not work properly. According to BCC 2, the device, sold under the name ADE651 for $18,000 to $66,000 per unit, has been recently tested by Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory. The university found that the ADE651 merely contained anti-theft tag sensors used to prevent theft from retail stores and that was not capable of detecting explosives of the type claimed by the company.

Following the report, the Iraqi government ordered a commission be formed to investigate the defective bomb-detection device that Baghdad bought from the British firm. Further, the British government announced a ban on the export effective today. In fact, Iraq’s interior ministry had been warned by its inspector general, Aqeel al-Turaihi, not to buy the explosives detector two years ago. Al-Turaihi told the ministry before the purchase that the device was “inoperative” and expensive. What’s more, Turaihi told Reuters that "there was corruption associated with this contract and we referred to this and submitted our report to the Minister of the Interior.”

The Iraqi ministry ignored all warnings and purchased some 1,500 ADE651 detectors at a total cost of some $85 million (€60.1 million), according to BBC information. Now the inoperative devices are being held responsible for numerous casualties caused by assaults with explosives at busy checkpoints in Baghdad. According to news reports, Iraqi lawmakers have demanded that security forces stop using the detectors. However, some officials still defend the device, claiming it has successfully detected many bombs and munitions caches.

Now, competitors fear that their handheld detection solutions might be placed under general suspicion. In particular, German-based unival group GmbH felt the need to distance itself from ATSC, since its HEDD1 handheld explosive detection device resembles the suspect ADE651 detectors.

In a press release the company noted: “Against this background, unival group would like to pro-actively inform its clients and distributors that the HEDD1, along with all previous generations of our handheld explosive detection devices, are completely different from reference-card based devices, as our systems work on the patented Magneto-Electrostatic-Detection (MED) principle. That is, they are active devices that modulate a specific magnetic field detecting only the modulation of the special bond balance (energy) between Nitrogen and Oxygen found in -NO2/-NO3 and H2O2 compounds, which are part of almost all conventional, military and also liquid explosives.”

The antenna that both systems use to indicate the source of detected explosives has linked the two devices in the general perception of not providing explosives detection. However, the Managing Director of unival, David Vollmar, explains that “even though the antenna is often criticised for making HEDD1 a rather analogue device, it allows the device to remain handheld and independent from a continuous power-supply, making possible real-time and stand-alone detection of explosives.”

In his assessment of the fraud case, Vollmar told defpro.com that unival believes “the reference-card based devices have been created by a group of people who initially tried to copy our technology but failed to reproduce the Magneto-Electrostatic-Detection method. This is why they only copied the general shape of the device and had to add another method, which they believed would be close to our approach. The result has been disastrous and they have created a massive scam, which is despicable.” unival, which will begin testing the HEDD1 with German authorities in early February, claims its device has already proven successful in detecting TNT explosives, detonating cord, grenades and various types of ammunition.

Beyond a doubt, introducing an inoperative detection device in this sensitive market would be a most criminal act, as many lives depend on the reliable detection of any explosive threats. Consequently, according to British officials, police in the Avon and Somerset Constabulary have arrested the owner of ATSC Ltd. However, he was released on bail shortly after his arrest. No company official was available when contacted by defpro.com today and the website of the company is reportedly “under repair”. The investigations to be conducted by the Iraqi interior ministry will hopefully prove whether the ADE651 has been involved in and proven to be ineffective in preventing attacks by insurgents in Baghdad.


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By Nicolas von Kospoth, Managing Editor