The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is intending to help US airports procure the latest runway debris-seeking technology.
FAA has laid down specifications in an advisory circular (AC), which indicated four types of detection systems for procurement including stationary radar, stationary electro-optical, stationary hybrid radar and electro-optical.
Federal grants can be obtained by airports to buy the systems, the first of which are expected to be installed by 2010.
The FAA, however, has mandated that all debris-detection equipment should be acquired through the airport improvement programme (AIP) or the passenger facility charge (PFC) programme.
Several companies including Israeli company XSight Systems, QinetiQ and Stratech are offering debris-detection systems.
