Smiths Detection

Smiths Detection is the threat detection arm of Smiths Group, the UK industrial conglomerate that traces its own roots back to 1851, and it has grown into one of the world's largest suppliers of screening and detection equipment for aviation, ports, borders, and military customers. The business runs from its base in the UK with five manufacturing sites spread across France, Germany, Malaysia, the UK, and the US, backed by eight research and development centers and more than 3,000 employees worldwide. Aviation security is the most visible part of the business, covering checkpoint baggage screening, hold baggage screening, and air cargo screening. The HI-SCAN line of X-ray scanners, including systems certified to European and US aviation security standards, is used at checkpoints and cargo facilities around the world, and the company's newer iCMORE artificial intelligence software layers automated threat recognition on top of that X-ray imagery to speed up operator decisions.

Its Augmented X-ray technology follows the same logic, using computed tomography and machine learning together rather than relying on an operator to spot a threat in a two-dimensional image alone. Ports and borders work extends the same screening technology to vehicles, containers, and cargo moving across international boundaries, while the urban security business applies people and bag screening to stadiums, transit systems, and other public venues that need a faster, less airport-like security posture. The defense and CBRNE side of the business is where the company's detection chemistry shows up most directly. The IONSCAN 600, a portable ion mobility spectrometry system, detects trace amounts of explosives and narcotics on surfaces, luggage, and cargo.

The SABRE 5000, a handheld tri-mode detector, identifies trace amounts of explosives, chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, and narcotics in the field, a capability aimed squarely at military EOD teams, first responders, and CBRN units rather than airport checkpoints. Together with radiation and nuclear detection equipment, this portfolio lets Smiths Detection sell into military chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives defense programs as well as its more familiar civil aviation and border security markets. A newer addition to the portfolio, battery sorting technology for the circular economy, reflects Smiths Detection's attempt to apply its X-ray and material identification expertise beyond security altogether, though detection for aviation, borders, and defense remains the core of what the business is known for. As a Smiths Group subsidiary, it benefits from the parent company's broader industrial engineering base while operating its detection and screening lines as a distinct, globally recognized brand in its own right.