BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Travelers passing through the security checkpoint at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport’s Southwest terminal will glimpse the next generation of X-ray security scanner, undergoing trials there for the next few months.

The COBRA system, built by Massachusetts-based Analogic, is an automatic explosive detection system that provides transportation security officers with a 3-D picture of items passing on the belt, while simultaneously detecting explosives or banned material.

“The biggest advance [from the old system] is X-ray, this is X-ray and explosive detection,” said Joe Salvator, deputy federal security director for BWI.

The system scans 2-D images from several angles to create a composite 3-D image, which security officers can rotate on the screen. At the same time, the system scans for explosives. Because of the 3-D image, travelers no longer need to remove items such as laptops from their bags for inspection.

BWI is the third airport nationwide to employ a version of the system, along with Cleveland and Manchester, N.H.

Response has been positive from travelers and the 50 to 60 transportation safety officers at BWI who underwent training on the system, Salvatore said.

“We’re hoping because it’s less manual, the wait will go a little faster,” he said.

BWI has been a test bed for a number of pilot security programs, Salvator said, and the airport was chosen for the current program due to its proximity to Transportation Security Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In about a month the airport will be swarmed with holiday travelers, but TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said she didn’t think the one new machine would create delays.

The system would be updated and refined as authorities identified new threats and new terrorism tactics, said Frank Vorwald, general manager of Analogic. But with 3-D capability and explosive detection, checkpoint-scanning technology might be approaching its peak, he said.

Jim Arthur, a salesman for Annapolis telecommunications firm TCS, said he’d take any time savings he could get as he passed through the checkpoint Wednesday.

“If it cuts time off, that’s good,” Arthur said.

acahall@baltimoreexaminer.com