During the week of March 09-13, 2026, the BAG-INTEL Consortium assembled anew, this time around at the premises of Thessaloniki Airport “Makedonia,” to successfully undertake Use Case II deployment. Following the deployment of Use Case I (Billund Lufthavn, S. Denmark, 26-29 January 2026), the BAG-INTEL Consortium furthered the range of deployable assets for this 2nd installment and proceeded to iteratively test and validate the BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform capacities and functionalities in the backdrop of vaster operational airport premises as well as equally near-real scenario iterative reenactments.
The BAG-INTEL Use Case II boiled down to an intensive 5-day technical & operational proceeding(s) deployment at several of Thessaloniki Airport “Makedonia” premises (Conference Rooms, Scanner & Carousel Belts, Customs Inspection Area etc.), where the ascribed activities of technical testing, end-user training and iterative scenario executions could be deployed and eventually evaluated on a findings basis. In this framework, Use Case II featured two new entries, as the Digital Twin (2D & 3D airport designs) & XCT scanner installation were both successfully introduced, deployed and tested on-premises to complete the deployable technical pipeline of subsystems that the BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform comprised.
By that token, the BAG-INTEL affiliated technical partners (Netcompany, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, PSI Logistics GmbH, Smiths Detection Germany GmbH, University of Granada, Legind Technologies A/S, EXUS, National Institute of Applied Sciences of Rouen, STAM S.r.l), their end-user counterparts (Spanish Tax Agency , Guardia Civil, Estonian Tax and Customs Board, Independent Authority for Public Revenue – IAPR, Hellenic Police), and the rest of security/research entities (Martel GmbH , DBC Diadikasia, Conceptivity, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems), were effectively received and guided by Legind Technologies (BAG-INTEL Coordinators), The Center for Security Studies – KEMEA (BAG-INTEL 2nd Use Case deployment coordinators), FRAPORT Greece (Thessaloniki Airport “Makedonia” Administrators), and the local Customs authorities (Independent Authority for Public Revenue – IAPR), in coordinating and conducting the following multifaceted gamut of on-site/online activities building up to a full technical pipeline, scenario-based, BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform demonstration and evaluation status:
- Technical Test Sessions (09-10 March): The BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform was tested iteratively on individual, integrated and end-to-end basis to attest as to its operational readiness and point out finetuning aspects that had to be carried out. The technical checks involved, among other things, camera and XCT scanner installation functional statuses, unique Identification & Re-identification luggage recordings, mock-up flight generations, Risk Indicators extractions and aggregated computation, Front-end Interface(s) information display and airport luggage/passenger flows modelling generation (Digital Twin).
- End-users’ 2nd On-site Training Workshop (10 March): The on-site training curriculum bridged the gap between the technical check(s) sessions and the full-scale demonstration phase, by familiarizing end-users anew with training methodology, deployed subsystem’s functionalities, the BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform architecture, scenario analyses and the legal/ethical antecedents underpinning this Pilot. Moreover, the Training Workshop served as a final status update to all participants, before scenario executions would unfold in the final stages of the 2nd USE-CASE.
- BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform Fully Operational Demonstration (11-12 March): Following the gearing up of end-users through the Training curriculum, the 2nd USE-CASE deployment culminated in a 2-day live Demonstration that featured a pair of (“low-risk” & “high-risk” non-Schengen) incrementally challenging scenario executions to test the readiness, resilience and effectiveness of deployed technical pipeline alongside the end-user’s comprehensive experience from leveraging the Integrated Platform’s capabilities vis-à-vis near-real operational conditions reenacted in the form of fictitious flights with Consortium volunteers as passengers with carry-on luggage waiting for targeted intrusive inspection.
- Final (6th) Plenary Meeting Preliminary Evaluation Round & Lessons Learned (13 March): The final act of the last installment in the BAG-INTEL Use Case series entailed the last Plenary Meeting, whereby all Participants fruitfully exchanged views and lessons-learned over the concluded Use Case II proceedings while outlining after actions (i.e., reports, upgrades, dissemination activities, etc.), thus commencing the validation phase of the BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform to last until the end of the Project’s life-cycle.
In the foreseeable future, the BAG-INTEL Consortium shall undertake the task of continuously evaluating the BAG-INTEL Integrated Platform, through iterative rounds of a quantitative (Questionnaire forms)/qualitative (semi-structured interviews) evaluation scheme, leading up to the validation of Integrated Platform’s multifold Readiness, attested platform acceptance by end-users and actionable recommendations to effect in the post BAG-INTEL project time-period (end of summer 2026).
