Daysleeper,
Agree, there are a fair number of false alarms; nothing on a ship is idiot-proof. On the other hand a few lives have been saved. The technology is fairly straghtforward though and I can't imagine it hasn't been considered; making blending it into proprietary radar technology obligatory may be something else.
Re the links you posted, the view through the firetruck's windscreen at 400' was great! Sounds a bit expensive.
411A, re your last comment: pretty much the same in Wichita as in Girona; a national or supra-national authority says it has to happen and, eventually, it does or it's blacklisted and rendered inoperative by the relevant authority - which might even be Homeland Security. Whether Girona or Aeropuertos Espanoles (if that's the national authority name) want to spend the money is immaterial; if they want your tourist dollar or euro that's the way it has to be.
Rivets, you're right. Arrived on a BEA Trident same time, picked up a rental car and got stuck in traffic, resented being labelled ghoul by H Wilson.