Replies to post #36 on Valley Forge Composite Technologies, Inc.(fka VLYF

[satelliteguy]

Oh yeah, the mojo is definitely back. I found it in the corner, behind the sofa. Add a 100-share tape paint, stir gently, and we're in business.

[satelliteguy]

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100108/NEWS0103/1090374/On+security+s+cutting+edge

Covington company's on cutting edge in security work
By Mark Hansel • [e-mail] • January 8, 2010

COVINGTON - A Northern Kentucky company has introduced technology that could impact everything from air travel and ground transportation to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Covington-based Valley Forge Composite Technologies just completed Thor LVX, an explosive detection system that performs a direct chemical detection of narcotics and explosives inside sealed containers.

The technology can be used to scan luggage at airports, sealed containers at borders and cargo ports and even to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in war zones. IEDs, also known as roadside bombs, are responsible for large numbers of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan and are difficult to detect and disarm.

The technology can also penetrate barriers, such as metal plates, that are often used to shield detection.

"People may not focus on this technology today, but as soon as it becomes available, it's a game changer," said Louis Brothers, president of Valley Forge Composite Technologies. "It's the biggest piece of equipment to hit the market since 9/11."

Valley Forge Composites Technologies teamed with the U.S. Department of Energy, Lawrence Livermore National laboratory and Russia's Lebedev Physical Research Institute to develop and commercially implement the technology.

As intriguing as the technology itself is, the story Brothers relates of how it was developed and brought into the United States is as well.

When the former Soviet Union was at war in Afghanistan in the '80s, Soviet scientists began to develop technology to identify IEDs. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, the technology was shelved.

After the collapse, the U.S. government developed the Initiative for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) Program, to divert scientists from the former Soviet Union away from activities related to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and toward peaceful research. The goal was to take advantage of research by the former Soviet scientists and to compensate them well enough that they would not offer the technology to governments that might use it to develop WMD.

Since it was difficult for the U.S. government to directly communicate with the scientists, American companies often operated as middlemen to engage the scientists in projects that had commercial value and could enhance national security.

Through a chance meeting in Russia shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Valley Forge Composite Technologies became one of those companies.

Brothers was doing research for some projects the company was working on for NASA when he was given the chance to see the technology that would eventually become Thor LVX.

"I signed the deal that day," Brothers said.

For the better part of the last decade, Brothers and the other development partners have been traveling to Russia, and bringing Russian scientists here, to complete the project. Now, the system is just weeks away from being introduced commercially.

Despite a significant corporate investment - Brothers estimates it at about $7 million - in a highly competitive industry, company officials are surprisingly forthcoming about the technology.

"There are two reasons for that," Brothers said. "Not many know photonuclear physics, so nobody could compete with us if they wanted to and our patent partner in this is the U.S. Department of Energy. We absolutely could not have gotten this done without the support of the Department of Energy and the (U.S.) government."

Valley Forge Technology has also developed Odin, which Brothers calls a significant upgrade from other backscatter devices. Backscatter devices are used to take x-rays of humans and are expected to be widely implemented at airports to detect concealed explosives and other weapons.

Brothers said the Odin screening system is less invasive and improves upon the limited field of view and depth of penetration of conventional backscatter devices.

The company is headquartered in Covington, has a research facility in Boone County and plans to add two additional U.S. locations once assembly of Thor LVX begins.