The Pioneer Press October 19, 2007
The underground detectives
Ord-Tech's leaders are convinced the market for their technology - which helps unearth buried mines, unexploded bombs and IEDs - exists. The right partnership may be at hand, they say.
By John Welbes
To prove that his company's technology can find just about anything buried in the Earth, Doug Perkins has spent weeks at proving grounds across the desert Southwest.
At test sites in California, Utah and Arizona, Perkins and a team from Ord-Tech have spent parts of the past 10 years detecting mines, unexploded bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
No one disputes that Ord-Tech's infrared system and its software analysis tool have proven effective in desert environments. But the one thing that's eluded the company is the big payoff for those years of hard work
"We're not going to go away," said Perkins, the CEO of the St. Paul-based company. The company has had that never-say-die attitude for more than a decade. Perkins says they've recently started work on a new project that gives Ord-Tech the best traction he's ever experienced for its technology. The company is working alongside a major defense contractor that he can't name yet, he says. But it's using Ord-Tech's system to find IEDs, and he believes it could lead to major work for the company.
"We can't take advantage of the global market on our own," said Perkins, who is 72. "I think the stars are lining up for us."
Ord-Tech's system uses infrared detection equipment that's flown over target areas, usually aboard a helicopter. During the day the sun heats up the soil, including anything buried underneath. At night, as the Earth cools, the buried items release heat in different ways, as detected by the infrared device that hangs from the bottom of a helicopter. The key, though, is Ord-Tech's software, which then analyzes the infrared data to identify the outlines of buried objects.
Perkins came to Ord-Tech in 1991 after he retired from Honeywell, where he worked for decades. At the time, the company was known as Oilton Remote Detection Technologies Inc.
In the early 1990s, Oilton's infrared technology was being used to help find leaks in underground oil pipelines. The technology was effective. The problem was the oil companies.
"It was our opinion that they weren't too interested in finding their mistakes," Perkins said. One of the first questions he remembers an oil company employee asking after seeing results was, "Does the EPA know about this technology?"
In the mid 1990s, Ord-Tech changed gears. Perkins had years of experience as a business developer in Honeywell's Aerospace and Defense Business unit and many contacts in the defense industry. The company started seeking contracts to detect mines and other unexploded ordnance for the military.
The company showed that it can find buried mines, but there wasn't an overwhelming interest. The U.S. Army's doctrine was that if soldiers came across a minefield, they'd build a road through it or go around it. Ord-Tech's system wasn't seen as necessary.
In 2003, Ord-Tech spent $30,000 on a demonstration at Edwards Air Force base in California. The company found suspected hazardous material and unexploded bombs. In another test, Ord-Tech found simulated IEDs in the type of conditions that would be encountered in Iraq.
If the technology is so good and the need so great, why hasn't Ord-Tech's business taken off?
Critics have noted that the system can only be used at night, that it needs to be flown overhead to produce the data and that trees get in the way of good readings. Also, if the system is going to be used in Iraq, it will have to be attached to the bottom of an unmanned aerial vehicle. Helicopters run the risk of being shot down.
While Perkins said Ord-Tech's system isn't the silver bullet for combating IEDs, he believes it can be a key part of the solution.
"We're interested in rural roads and convoys," he said.
As troops in Iraq started getting killed in large numbers by improvised explosive devices - IEDs, or roadside bombs - the military started looking for solutions. The devices have accounted for about 70 percent of all U.S. casualties in Iraq.
Most of the energy and money put into countering the threat has gone toward technology that can jam the bombs' electronic components before troops or vehicles trigger them. The military has spent at least $6 billion on that effort so far, according to government reports. But none of the jamming technology has worked very well.
More recently, the Marines and the Army have advocated a different strategy. Military leaders told the Pentagon earlier this year they want new armored vehicles that are four times as resistant as a Humvee to bomb blasts. John Pike, director of a Virginia-based military studies group called Globalsecurity.org, thinks it will be a mixture of electronic jamming technology and vehicles with more armor.
He noted that while the number of American casualties from IEDs in Iraq is about the same as it was three years ago, there are about four to five times as many attacks on a regular basis.
"We've made it a lot harder to kill an American," he said. The problem in Iraq, he says, is that that insurgents aren't giving up. "The better we get at stopping them, the harder they try."
If Ord-Tech's system works on roads used for convoys, the question, Pike said, could become whether it can be used in that situation consistently.
Revenue has come in sporadically at Ord-Tech, which did about $100,000 worth of business last year. And the company also has "a few million" in debt, not to mention that some employees - including Perkins - are owed back pay.
Still, Perkins remains optimistic that the defense firm he's working with now will be able to find a place for Ord-Tech's system. Without the constant challenge of trying to find working capital for Ord-Tech, Perkins said, "this would be the most fun thing I've ever done."
John Welbes can be reached at jwelbes@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2175.
© Copyright 2007, The Pioneer Press
