Largo FL startup creating device to detect bombs, save soldiers' lives

Largo startup creating device to detect bombs, save soldiers' lives

LARGO — Guy Ontai and Ed Dottery are creating a device to detect the roadside bombs that have killed so many American soldiers in Iraq. They hope the Army will eventually pay to put their laser-based system into the field. But to these entrepreneurs, the business is more than a startup with financial potential.

Ontai and Dottery are both retired Army majors, both West Point graduates — and one more thing: Ontai has a son in the Army, deployed in Iraq.

"The phrase I use is, we've got blood in this fight," said Ontai, 52, vice president and chief engineer of Alaka'i Consulting & Engineering. "My son's there; Ed and I have had classmates wounded and killed in Iraq."

"It's about saving soldiers' lives, and right now what's killing soldiers' lives is explosives," said Dottery, 51, company president.

Alaka'i has spent two years in a business incubator program at the Young Rainey STAR Center in Largo, and now is moving into a 3,000-square-foot office space there.

The company, which has seven employees, has a $3-million contract with the Army to design and test the system. It hopes that with more development, the Army will decide to buy the laser system so it can be put into production.
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