During the Demonstration, users from the 7th Infantry Division and instructors from the 3rd Chemical Brigade at the U.S. Army Chemical School went through obstacle courses, firing ranges, a two-mile march, and mounted and dismounted vehicles comparin...
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (Feb. 19, 2015) -- Researchers from across the Department of Defense have designed and tested new fabrics for a Self-Detoxifying Suit to replace warfighter uniforms, officials announced recently.
The Self-Detoxifying Suit is made up of four materials -- air impermeable concept, cover fabric, semi-permeable membrane and knit comfort liner -- placed within a chemical and biological garment that reacts with and decontaminate chemical warfare agents on contact.
This effort to keep warfighters safe from head-to-toe is a part of Defense Threat Reduction Agency's joint Army and Air Force Program, the Integrated Fabric Protective System project. The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center; Defense Threat Reduction Agency; the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center; and the Air Force Civil Engineer Center teamed up on the project.
The suit's purpose is to mitigate three key challenges:
1) Helps users retain protection after exposure to battlefield contaminants through using reactive materials that do not compromise protection
2) Mitigates contact transfer hazard, so that after decontamination, any residual agent is reduced over time and is less likely to harm someone who comes into contact with it
3) Decreases thermal burden to allow warfighters to remain combat effective while being worn
DTRA began funding IPFS in 2006. In September 2014, the project hosted an Army Operational Demonstration of the Self-Detoxifying Suit for the Joint Project Manager Protection.
"It has been exciting to see this work that was taken from the early stages of research at Edgewood and developed into various suits that soldiers are wearing and evaluating during an operational demonstration," said Dr. David McGarvey, a research chemist with ECBC's Analytical Toxicology branch. McGarvey has been with the IPFS project since its inception and serves as the ECBC project lead.
During the demonstration, users from the 7th Infantry Division and instructors from the 3rd Chemical Brigade at the U.S. Army Chemical School went through obstacle courses, firing ranges, a two-mile march, and mounted and dismounted vehicles comparing the self-detoxifying suit to the
standard Joint Service suits that are currently fielded.
This kind of demonstration gives ECBC and its partners the information necessary to make any design changes to the suit in order for it to be an effective piece of warfighter gear, McGarvey said.
In order for the self-detoxifying suit to make it to an operational demonstration, researchers needed to first develop unique, innovative and effective test methods that allow researchers to understand and identify what kinds of reactions take place between CWA and fabrics.
The testing of the fabrics took place at ECBC, where McGarvey and Dr. Bill Creasy developed new analytical methods for a solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer. In this method, researchers could add live CWA to the fabric, seal it inside of a ceramic rotor, then repeatedly observe the sample over time without disturbing the sample.
Using previous methods, the fabric sample would have to be destroyed during the analysis. The previous methods required the making of multiple samples in order to observe different reaction times, which increased the possibility of errors. In other cases, simulant was used instead of live agent, leading to less accurate results.
"Our ability to safely use live agent is invaluable to our research," McGarvey said. "With this method, we don't need to have multiple samples to analyze the changes over time and can just monitor the one sample and how it changes.
"There is less chance of misunderstanding the data. We can test against the full range of CWA, for all the different fabric materials that have been designed."
IPFS will next undergo an operational demonstration with the Air Force where Airmen will wear the self-detoxifying suits while performing Air Force specific tasks such as refueling a plane.
Other organizations and institutions that worked with ECBC, NSRDEC and AFCEC were Emory University, Calgon/Chemviron, Enropics and Phasex.
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The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.
RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness -- technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment -- to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.
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