STERLING, VA. -- Security systems developer Gatekeeper, Inc., world leader in automatic under vehicle inspection and remote access control technologies, announced the appointment of a Gatekeeper sales and service operation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; to help meet growing demand for the company's threat detection products in that highly agitated area of the world. The new facility is the Virginia-based firm's second field office in the Middle East, joining its support and training office in Dubai which opened in 2012.
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Established in 2004, Gatekeeper is a manufacturer of the world's only fully automatic under vehicle inspection system (AUVIS), which provides government buildings, military checkpoints, airports, seaports, trains/railways, hotels, royal palaces, nuclear power plants, embassies, petroleum facilities, chemical companies, border crossings, and other important sites a critical first line of defense against explosives, weapons, and other contraband hidden on the underside of roadway and railway vehicles by automatically scanning for and detecting foreign objects or modifications made to the vehicle's undercarriage.
"A by-product of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq is that all of the neighboring countries that have important infrastructure are redoubling their efforts to provide protection for it," said Dick Barcus, Gatekeeper's president. "Middle Eastern governments who are supporting the American-led coalition against ISIS know there will be serious shockwaves from the bombing campaign which are going to flow back and impact them. These countries have very important venues and facilities to protect from possible terrorist reprisal, and Gatekeeper is helping them do that."
Barcus said Gatekeeper's system is the first and only security system that can automatically compare an image of a newly scanned vehicle undercarriage to a reference image of a prescreened vehicle undercarriage of the same year, make, and model stored in the system's database; then instantly display a highlight around any detected differences between the two images, while activating an audio and/or visual alarm to alert the system operator to a potential threat on the underside of the vehicle.
"The Gatekeeper system was successfully field-tested in May 2005 in Iraq by CENTCOM forces and was declared fit for unrestricted deployment," said Barcus. "As a result, many systems are now in daily use by the US military, and more than 450 systems have been installed and are in use by foreign governments in 28 countries, including key locations throughout the Middle East."
While many installations are confidential, Barcus said some of the high-profile sites using Gatekeeper's inspection system include: the American Embassy in Riyadh; Saudi Arabia; CENTCOM installations in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan; the Grand Hyatt, Crown Plaza, and Intercontinental Hotels in Amman, Jordan; the Kuwait Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation; the Kuwait Embassy in the United Arab Emirates; Chevron Oil in Kuwait; UAE Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Pakistan; King Abdulla International Airport in Saudi Arabia; the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Afghanistan; the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi; the Presidential Palace in Yemen; Libya/Egypt border crossings; Shell Oil in Iraq; the Presidential Palace in Turkey; and hundreds of others.
"Our company has installed permanently embedded Gatekeeper systems in 28 countries over the last 10 years," said Christopher Millar, Gatekeeper's CEO. "We also manufacture a portable automated under vehicle inspection system, as was recently used by Estada Mayor Presidencial and the U.S. Secret Service to boost security for last February's North American Leaders' Summit in Toluca, Mexico, which was attended by President Obama, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The system was up and running within 48 hours of our receiving a request for help by the presidential security agencies involved."
Although his company supplies systems to governments and enterprises in every part of the world, Millar said for the foreseeable future, he believes security demands in the Middle East will continue to provide Gatekeeper with the most opportunity for growth.
"Right now we're engaged in a huge push to help harden the military assets, infrastructure, and resources in this very troubled region of the world, so there will be no need to do the same in our own homeland," said Millar.
For more information about Gatekeeper, Inc., and its Automatic Under Vehicle Inspection Systems, please visit gatekeepersecurity.com.
ABOUT GATEKEEPER, INC.
Gatekeeper is an American advanced technology company dedicated to the development and worldwide deployment of security systems that allow the underside of vehicles, of all descriptions, to be automatically searched from a safe distance. Gatekeeper's automatic under vehicle inspection systems (AUVIS) are designed to provide the first line of defense against foreign and domestic threats, no matter the means of ground travel. (i.e., cars, trucks, trains, etc.) Each AUVIS integrates with other entry control point technologies, providing a comprehensive access control point system.
Gatekeeper's philosophy is: security should not hinder the flow of commerce nor the quality of life; rather, both should be enhanced through the use of non-intrusive, artificial intelligence-based physical security systems. Gatekeeper provides its security products and services to many sectors including: Department of Defense, federal and local governments, air and sea ports, oil refineries, chemical plants, commercial enterprises, private premises, water reservoirs, hydro and nuclear power plants, railroad companies, and others.
