The effectiveness of quality control aids in verifying K-9 team explosive detection performance

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and supporting agencies conducted a developmental test and evaluation (DT&E) to determine if quality control aids (QCAs) could be developed that would provide effective surrogates to actual explosives used for training and testing K-9 explosives detection teams. Non-detonable surrogates are required to alleviate logistics and contamination issues with explosives used as training aids. Comparative K-9 team detection performance for explosives used as training aids and QCAs was determined for three types of explosives: single-based smokeless powder, TNT, and C4. Three QCA configurations of each explosive type were evaluated to determine the optimal configuration for the QCAs. The configurations were a paper patch impregnated with a solution of the explosive, a cloth pouch filled with small amounts of solid explosive, and the Nonhazardous Explosive for Security Training and Testing (NESTT) material. The DT&E was conducted at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where the K-9 teams undergo initial training. Six FAA certified operational teams participated. All explosives and QCAs were presented to the K-9 teams using a 10 scent box protocol. The results show that K-9 teams are more sensitive to explosives than the candidate QCAs. More importantly, it was discovered that the explosives at Lackland AFB are cross-contaminated, meaning that explosives possessed volatile artifacts from other explosives. There are two potential hypotheses explaining why the dogs did not detect the QCAs. First, the cross-contamination of Lackland training explosives may mean that K-9 teams are only trained to detect the explosives with the most volatile chemical signatures. Alternatively, the QCA configurations may have been below the trained detection threshold of the K-9s. It is recommended that K-9 teams train on uncontaminated odors from properly designed QCAs to ensure that dogs respond to the appropriate explosive components, and not some other constituent or contaminant.