The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will remove from U.S. airports its remaining body-scanning machines that privacy advocates likened to strip searches for showing almost-naked images of passengers.

TSA will end a $5 million contract with OSI Systems Inc.’s Rapiscan unit after Administrator John Pistole concluded the company couldn’t meet a congressional deadline to deliver software that would produce generic images of passengers, agency officials said in interviews.

TSA will remove 174 Rapiscan machines from U.S. airports, with the company absorbing the cost, Karen Shelton Waters, the agency’s assistant administrator for acquisitions, said. The agency will replace the Rapiscan machines with 60 units manufactured by L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., the agency’s other body-scanner supplier. 

(Bloomberg)