NATO is testing a new weapon against terrorists in Rome’s subway

Among Rome’s metro tunnels, NATO soldiers are testing a new technologywith the ability to detect weapons and explosives hidden in clothes and bags.

NATO summoned after a wave of attacks in several European capitals between 2015 and 2017, a group of scientists from a dozen European research centers they worked for three years nasa dexter project to create technology capable of preventing such activities.

It’s about guaranteeing security at stations and airports which millions of people pass through every day.

Dexter incorporating a wide variety of technologies, sensors and software providing real-time information to police or security guards monitoring busy public areas.

giant screens

In a subway corridor, giant screens send out colorful pictures of radar and laser systems. Radar scans passing travelers and produces high-resolution 2D and 3D images of those reveal in red the presence of a weaponwhile the laser system detect traces of explosives.

The results of the two sensors are combined and analyzed by software, which transmits quickly an alert on smart glasses worn by a police officer in the control room.

“We can combine and combine information from the first and last sensor and send a message to the police officer,” explains Henri Bouma, an expert at Dutch research center TNO.

A “100% successful” system

Last month several tests were conducted and both systems achieved 100% success to see people carrying weapons or showed traces of explosives in the body.

Tests conducted on large squads obtained a success rate of “over 99%”, according to Bouma.

For NATO Undersecretary General, in charge of Emerging Security Challenges, David van Weel, this technology, less invasive and more accurate that casual searches can have a “concrete impact” on citizens ’lives.

“It allows you to go to a football match or to an airport in absolute safety“, where he.

Participation in the project, among others a dozen physicists and experts from Italy, France, Holland and Germany, as well as Ukraine, South Korea, Serbia and Finland.

So far, a prototype

So far it’s “a prototype”, explained Deniz Beten, who heads NATO’s scientific program for peace and security.

“We hope to be inside one or two years we can commercialize for use in subways, airports and other infrastructures “, he admits.

Due to the decline in public funding for research and development projects, the Dexter Project fills a gap that the private sector can be seized, Van Weel maintains.

“Now, it’s up to the industry how Dexter will work so that it can really protect us,” Italian physicist Luigi De Dominicis from the Italian think tank ENEA told reporters.

By Alexandria Sage / AFP

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