* UK sees booming global market for security industry
* London Olympics, resurgent al Qaeda stir demand
* Industry aware of need to address rights concerns
By William Maclean, Security Correspondent
LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Britain's homeland security sector is poised for growth, despite the UK's economic woes, due to a resurgent militant threat and a better understanding of what technologies government customers want developed.
Export opportunities are expanding, with the government predicting the global market for products such as surveillance and scanning gadgetry and cyber and physical protection technologies will double by 2018.
And the domestic market got a boost last year when the government for the first time gave companies and universities a list of its specific security priorities -- devices to sharpen data analysis by intelligence services, to protect crowded public places, to guard public utilities like dams, and to fight cyber-terror.
The move was a morale booster for an industry that had long complained it did not know in detail what the state wanted it to do because security needs shrouded procurement in secrecy.
"Historically, companies have been reluctant to spend. Security was seen as a fixed cost, often incident-driven," John Franklin-Webb of security firm ICTS said on the sidelines of the industry's annual Counter Terror Expo gathering.
"But now it's an international trend. Terrorism is at the top of the security agenda. People are increasingly protecting what they have, and the government has played a role in that."
Britain ranks sixth globally in terms of value of global security sales and believes it can expand, touting what it calls a leading edge in surveillance and bomb detection.
The March 29 Moscow Metro attack, a Dec. 25 attack on a U.S. airliner, and a string of arrests of suspected pro-al Qaeda militants in the United States in 2009, shows extremism retains global currency for a dangerous and committed few.
Police in Britain, the European country experts see as most at risk of attack of al Qaeda attack, have been on high alert since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and especially after four young British Islamists carried out suicide bombings in London in 2005 killing 52 people.
THREAT IS "PERSISTENT"
Preparations for the 2012 London Olympics have focussed minds even further. The message from the security community is that al Qaeda's failure to launch a successful attack in the West since 2005 does not mean it has stopped trying.
"The threat is real, persistent and enduring," David Veness, a former head of U.N. security and top counter-terrorism police officer at Scotland Yard, told the gathering.
The industry is also working to shore up popular support for its role by addressing civil liberties concerns about counter-terror technology such as video surveillance before they deepen into broad-based popular opposition to its use.
U.S. businesswoman Emily Landis Walker, a former staff member of the 9/11 Commission now advising London authorities on security, says big cities around the world are still trying to implement lessons learned from the 2001 attacks, especially in evacuation, communications and business continuity.
The upbeat mood was palpable at the industry gathering, where the number of exhibitors tripled to 327 compared to last year's event, according to organisers.
At a stand displaying his unmanned aerial surveillance drone, Michael McNulty, sales and marketing director of British manufacturer UAVSI, said he had spent five years developing the product, now entering the market, and his timing was spot on.
"We're in the right place, at the right moment in aerial surveillance. What's behind the general demand? Yes, it's al Qaeda and the Olympics, but it's also technology. We're able to do things we couldn't before, and customers want that."
While there is much to do and demand is resilient, companies understand UK government budget pressures will not go away.
"We'd all love to have the very best of everything. Life isn't like that," said Detective Superintendent Jim Busby, Head of Secure Venues for the London 2012 Olympics.
"We need to be grown up about that and working with our partners to come up with proportionate solutions." (Reporting by William Maclean; editing by Philippa Fletcher)