The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is pushing forward on new Aerosol and Vapor Chemical Agent Detector (AVCAD) solutions to track chemicals on a smaller scale, and to this end, has selected Smiths Detection (SDI) as designer and engineer.
The company’s contract will put them in cooperation with the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense. They will create a miniaturized device that can detect, identify, report and alarm those under threat of dangerous vapors and aerosols. DOD desires it to have wireless remote alarm capability and be both mountable and portable, to maximize its use for military personnel.
“Smiths Detection has partnered with the Department of Defense to provide more than ninety-one thousand Joint Chemical Agent Detector (JCAD) units over the past fourteen years, making the program one of the most effective chemical warfare protection solutions in history,” SDI President Shan Hood said.
For the project, SDI will also work with subcontractor 908 Devices Inc., to acquire the use of their High-Pressure Mass Spectrometry (HPMS) for the AVCAD. Mass spectrometry measures masses within samples, but HPMS allows that process to be miniaturized, eliminating a traditional need for large, cumbersome devices that limit the uses of the process.
SDI’s facility in Edgewood, Md., will handle manufacturing.