CyTerra CEO Testifies Before Congress
March 12, 2002

TESTIMONY OF
DR. DAVID H. FINE, FOUNDER, PRESIDENT AND CEO CYTERRA CORPORATION

BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES SUBCOMMITTEE ON
MILITARY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. Chairman, Congressman Meehan, Members of this distinguished Subcommittee, my name is Dr. David Fine, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of CyTerra Corporation, headquartered in Massachusetts, and with operations there and in Orlando, Florida.

CyTerra Corporation is an employee-owned company, founded in July 2000 to focus on the development and production of technological solutions to help combat terrorism. Management and many of the employees have worked on counter terrorism technology since the mid 1980's at the R&D Center of Thermo Electron Corporation, before our spin-off. Fortunately, these many years of research done in advance of the horrific crimes of September 11, have provided our country some critical technologies to protect our serviceman abroad, and our citizens at home.

On December 17, just eight days before Christmas 2001, Corporal Chris Chandler, United States Marine Corps, was on patrol near Kandahar when he stepped on a device which exploded and caused him to lose his foot. The area had been "swept" with existing technology, devices which do not detect plastic mines. What happened to Corporal Chandler should never happen again to US soldiers and those of our allies, for technology does exist that can detect such mines. I can assure you that every man and woman at CyTerra will work with the Subcommittee and the Department of Defense to make our plastic-mine detecting technology available for routine use.

Today, I am here to ask the Subcommittee to help the Department of Defense assure that there is a funding stream made available to increase our production of HSTAMIDS to protect our servicemen.

DETECTION OF BURIED LAND MINES

Our scientists have worked to perfect a hand-held mine detector for over 20 years. In January 2001, we were honored to receive a $12.3 million contract from the U.S. Army for the final engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System (HSTAMIDS). The new mine detector fuses both a modern and very sensitive metal detector with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to form a single integrated light-weight sensor that weighs only eight pounds. The new mine detector is far more effective than the current Army issue, AN/PSS-12, which uses metal detection alone, and which HSTAMIDS is scheduled to replace. Recent tests, conducted by the US Army, have shown HSTAMIDS to be capable of detecting close to 100% of both metallic and non-metallic anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, with a low false alarm rate. As a result of this progress, the Army has just recently approved an emergency production order for several hundred of these new mine detectors for deployment in Operation Enduring Freedom. This order will provide jobs for approximately 60 high-technology workers at Cyterra and its sub-contractors.

This urgent request for HSTAMIDS has pushed the production schedule forward more than a year. We ask that both the Subcommittee and the Army to accelerate the entire production schedule, which was originally expected to commence late in Fiscal 2004. In practical real dollar terms, we ask for an authorization of at least $10 million in the coming Fiscal Year to purchase an additional 800 units. As a point of reference, the Army's inventory of the AN/PSS-12, which it is scheduled to replace, is over 14,000 units

DETECTION OF EXPLOSIVES & NON-METALLIC WEAPONS ON PEOPLE

As this Nation enhances security at military installations, command centers and other critical infrastructure facilities, such as airports, marine terminals and even shopping malls, there is still much more to do.

Metal detectors in use today at security check points are incapable of detecting a suicide bomber or a person carrying non-metallic weapons made of glass, wood, ceramic or plastic. The identical Radar technology, electronics and software that has been developed for mine detection has been shown to be capable of detecting these potential threats on people. Prototype equipment, in the form of a portable "wand," is available for demonstration. This technology could be in production within only a few months and has been offered to the Department of Defense's Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), the FAA and Customs.

PERIMETER RADAR

Another related spin-off of the mine detector Radar technology is a light-weight, low-power perimeter security system with a range of one mile; looking for human intruders. This technology could be used, for example, by special forces to give them added protection when operating in hostile environments, and a proposal on this topic, as well, has been submitted to TSWG.

DETECTION OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL AGENTS

In November 2001 Cyterra successfully completed a $1.3 million contract for the US Marine Corps in which the company developed and delivered Chemical and Biological Individual Samplers (CBIS) and two Reader Systems suitable for field use. The goal of the program was to develop a tool that could be used to simultaneously monitor soldiers for exposure to sub-lethal doses of both chemical and biological warfare agents. The key feature of the technology is that it can detect all bio and chemical threats, not just a small sub-set such as anthrax. As a result of this program, revolutionary new sampling technology and analysis equipment is now available that can be used - at dramatically lower cost - to monitor individuals and locations for airborne chemical and biological warfare agents. This technology monitors a broad spectrum of potential threats on aircraft or trains, or in public areas such as airports, train and bus terminals, and public and or commercial buildings, sports stadiums etc. A single reader, located for example in the Capital, could monitor approximately 700 locations per day. Prototype equipment is available for demonstration. Proposals on this technology have been submitted to TSWG, FAA and Customs.

DESTRUCTION OF AIRBORNE BIOLOGICAL AGENTS INSIDE A BUILDING

CyTerra has developed novel and revolutionary technology to cost-effectively mitigate against an airborne biological attack. The technology is designed to be inserted inside a building's Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system to continuously remove bio-agents from the air circulating system. A prototype system has already been built. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is considering a proposal to fund a demonstration of the technology.

DESTRUCTION OF BIOLOGICAL AGENTS IN DRINKING WATER

It is well known that biological agents can be destroyed by boiling drinking water for several minutes. A continuous flow sterilizer that heats the water to kill the active bio-agents and then also cools the water down to close to its original temperature has been developed at Cyterra. The technology uses a counter flow heat exchanger and can be sized to pasteurize water at flow rates of a few pints per minute to thousands of gallons per minute. The key advantage of the technology over other processes is that it uses the same energy to both heat and then cool the water, thereby reducing the energy needed by over 90%. TSWG has expressed an interest in this technology.

DRY SUIT FOR WORKER SAFETY

The bulky protective garments worn by workers dealing with highly hazardous substances such as chemical and biological warfare agents suffer by virtue of the fact that the time in protective suits is generally limited to approximately one hour or less. Within that time, the body becomes dehydrated and the core body temperature begins to rise, even if the suits have cooling systems. CyTerra has developed technology that dries rather than cools the air inside the suit, thereby extending the time in the suit from one to five hours. Prior to September 11, CyTerra was notified by the Department of Energy that their proposal to demonstrate the technology would be funded in 2002; the company is still awaiting award of this contract.

DETECTION OF EXPLOSIVES IN CHECKED LUGGAGE

CyTerra is also working on technology dealing with aviation security: Another concern in today's headlines. Recent legislation requires that there be a capability to screen 100% of all checked luggage for explosives, by the end of 2002. Present systems being considered by the FAA are primarily CAT-scan X-ray (CTX) that cost about one million dollars each and have a false alarm rate of approximately 30%. By comparison, new technology developed at CyTerra that scavenges trace explosives particles and vapors from inside a suitcase, is expected to be one seventh of the cost, have two to three times the throughput, and have one hundredth of the false alarm rate of CTX systems. Cyterra's technology uses very fast decompression to scavenge and eject a trace sample from the explosive device itself, onto a suitable collector. The collector is then analyzed using an FAA approved chemical trace detector. By way of example, conventional technology did not and will not detect plastic explosives in shoes. When you see airport screeners putting shoes through an x-ray machine at the airport, be assured that the machine won't detect plastic explosives. The new system that we are developing would be capable of detecting and identifying explosives in shoes, belts, cell phones, radios and luggage. CyTerra has teamed with the major supplier of trace equipment, Barringer, to rapidly bring this technology to help protect Americans.

RADIOTRAC

CyTerra has developed the world's smallest and cheapest Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)-based emergency location and tracking system for security and law enforcement officials. The system uses the radio's voice channel to transmit location information. Because it "rides" on voice communication, RadioTrac interfaces to any radio manufactured by any company operating at any frequency, and is ideally suited for use with walkie-talkie radios. Because of its very low cost, it is affordable and can be used to know the location of all security personnel. The equipment is in commercial production for immediate use. This technology allows commanders - half way around the world - to monitor field locations in real time.

CONCLUSION

At CyTerra, in Waltham and Orlando, we work to save lives. But as glittering and as promising as this 21st Century technology is, these technologies can never advance without the interest and support of government: The DOD and other relevant law enforcement agencies and the Congress.

The scientists and engineers at CyTerra look forward to working with the Subcommittee and DOD to bring new life-saving technologies to the men and women on the frontlines, and to work on identifying and perfecting technologies to protect our homeland and our citizens. Working together we can, and will, provide our military personnel abroad and public safety personnel here at home with the best technology available in our war on terrorism. Thank you for this opportunity to speak today.