The warfighter needs lighter weight, less burdensome, and more efficient clothing and equipment for respiratory and percutaneous protection as well as improved systems and shelters for collective protection. Improvements in respiratory protective equipment will be demonstrated including a 50% reduction in breathing resistance, 50% increase in field of vision, increase in protection to guard against potential future threats, improved system integration and compatibility with weapon sighting systems, and 25% improvement in communications capabilities. Respiratory protection technology is scheduled to transition to the Land Warrior program and program definition/risk reduction phase for the Joint Service General Purpose Mask (JSGPM, formerly RESPO 21).
For percutaneous protection, an overgarment based on selectively permeable membrane technology that is 20% lighter in weight than the standard battledress overgarment will be demonstrated. Further membrane development will lead to an overgarment 20% lighter in weight than the JSLIST overgarment and also 25% more durable and 25% less costly than the first-generation membrane/fabric garment. Ultimately, an agent protective duty uniform that eliminates, or at least minimizes, the need for an overgarment will be developed. Additional efforts involve a stretchable, permeable/adsorptive material with flame-retardant properties for lightweight undergarments, socks, and gloves; thermoplastic elastomers for improved overboots and special-purpose clothing; improved closure systems for ensembles; microencapsulated phase change materials for special-purpose applications; and evolving test methodologies for evaluating new materials. Transition opportunities include Land Warrior, JSLIST P3I, and advanced development programs. Clothing items resulting from JSLIST P3I will demonstrate enhancements to JSLIST items. JSLIST P3I items will be lighter in weight, less prone to causing heat stress, more durable, launderable up to 10 times, decontaminable for reuse, and wearable for a minimum of 45 days.
Protection must also be provided for individuals and for troops inside vehicles, ships, aircraft, and shelters. The collective protection technology area seeks to develop improvements to existing protective equipment that will allow individuals and groups of personnel to operate in contaminated areas as well as to anticipate future threat CB agents that may be able to compromise current protective equipment. Specifically, air purification systems will allow extended, unencumbered operations in enclosures in an agent-contaminated environment and reduce the logistics burden of filter exchange with resultant downtime. Protection against potential filter-defeating chemicals by using regenerative filtration processes will be a major improvement. Regenerative filtration systems are in development for applications such as Comanche helicopters and armored vehicles. Improvements in materials and engineering to measure and extend usable filter lifetimes are also sought for current single-pass filtration systems used throughout the military.
3.2.2.1 Goals and Timeframes. The goals of the protection subarea are to maintain a high level of protection against CB agents and radiological particles while reducing the physiological and logistics burden associated with wearing protective equipment; to integrate CB protection with protection from environmental, ballistic, and other threats; and to provide a protective environment for personnel operating in aircraft, armored vehicles, ships, shelters, and other large area enclosures. In FY97/98, applied research efforts will continue to focus on development of a lower bulk-weight, general-purpose mask to meet joint service requirements. New concepts include flexible filter media, advanced lens materials with semiflexible optical properties, a single-piece cylindrical wrap lens design, and an enhanced aerosol filtration system. JSGPM technology will transition to the program definition/risk reduction phase in FY99.
In FY97, the development and characterization of selectively permeable membranes laminated to lightweight textile fabrics will be completed. The goal is to develop materials for a CB protective overgarment 20% lighter in weight than the standard battledress overgarment and eliminates, or at least reduces, the use of activated carbon. In FY98, the scale-up of pilot plant production quantities in commercial width will be accomplished. Overgarments will be fabricated, and their efficacy and durability will be demonstrated. In FY99, the evaluation of lightweight, CB-resistant shell fabrics and materials for novel closure systems will be completed and integrated into a lightweight CB duty uniform concept. The goal is to develop a CB protective duty uniform that eliminates, or at least minimizes, the need for an overgarment. The CB duty uniform will be launderable, 30% lighter in weight, and less bulky than the standard duty uniform/overgarment system (JSLIST), with equivalent durability, reduced logistics burden, and lower cost. In FY00, concept lightweight CB duty uniforms will be fabricated and demonstrated for their efficacy and durability. During FY01-03, agent-reactive materials will be developed and incorporated into self-detoxification, lightweight CB clothing systems.
Technology efforts in collective protection have the objective of developing a fundamental understanding and predictive capability for each separation process under investigation. This fundamental understanding will lead to the design of hardware with improved reliability and reduced logistical requirements as compared to current filtration systems. Advanced technology will be used for military platforms currently in development and expected to be fielded within 10 years. Each application (vehicle, aircraft, etc.) requiring collective protection will select an optimum approach (single-pass, pressure swing adsorption (PSA), etc.) early in its development cycle, prior to transition to the program definition/risk reduction phase.
3.2.2.2 Major Technical Challenges. Approaches to reduce breathing resistance and improve comfort of respiratory equipment include bonded carbon flexible filters, improved aerosol filtration media, novel low-resistance respiratory valves, and development of improved sealing and blown air systems. To increase protection and meet future threat levels, approaches include development of improved materials for facepieces, lenses, and seals. Compatibility with current and future optical and weapon sighting systems will be achieved through flexible lens designs and reduced lens eye relief.
Reduction of heat stress associated with CB protective ensembles will be achieved by developing selectively permeable membranes laminated to lightweight shell fabrics, resulting in thin, lightweight materials with low thermal insulation and high levels of water vapor transport for evaporative cooling. Also, the use of microphase change material will be demonstrated for application on extreme temperature protective clothing.
Collective protection poses numerous technical challenges. Inroads are being made on several fronts including advanced catalysts, engineered adsorbent materials, improved reactive impregnates, and regenerative vapor and particulate filtration processes and materials. These efforts are based on relationships between filtration performance and physical/chemical parameters of the various separation media. The lack of service requirements for collective protection hinders the development or investment in research for new materials and technologies.
3.2.2.3 Related Federal and Private Sector Efforts. Individual respiratory protection concepts and technology are being considered by 3M Corporation for application in the next-generation occupational safety equipment. Battelle is currently marketing electronic devices developed for advanced respiratory protection for commercial applications. Cooperative industrial efforts are being discussed with Geomet Technologies for commercial application of respiratory protection concepts in escape and limited-exposure conditions.
W. L. Gore and Associates, Inc., has developed selectively permeable membrane technology that is being thoroughly evaluated for clothing applications. DOE has an effort for the development of apparel for hazardous waste cleanup personnel that is being leveraged. Continuous coordination and collaborative efforts with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and NASA regarding individual protection technologies are essential.
For collective protection, the Program Manager for Aircrew Integrated Systems (PM ACIS) is evaluating the possibility of retrofitting a regenerative filtration system based on catalytic oxidation or PSA into an existing helicopter. The PM for Comanche is designing a regenerative filtration system based on PSA technology for application in its new helicopter. Private sector efforts incorporating advanced filtration or separation techniques span a wide range of applications from waste stream pollution abatement to gas (air) separation. Regenerative filtration has been used extensively in industry for several decades for gas separation and purification. Application to production of breathable air from contaminated environments and separation of trace contamination from high-flow air streams is only now receiving consideration. Other potential applications include environmental remediation, pulsed-power plasma destruction in the electrical power industry, establishing a protected area within a chemical plant in case of accidental chemical spill, odor reduction in vehicle cabin space, development of non-chloro-fluoro-carbon (CFC) conditioning systems, and PSA-based oxygen concentrators (for high-performance aircraft applications).
3.2.3.1 Technology Demonstrations. Individual respiratory and percutaneous protection technology will be demonstrated during FY98. Subsequently, selected technologies will transition to the Land Warrior Program. Respiratory protection technologies will also transition to the program definition/risk reduction phase in FY99 for JSGPM. A key transition opportunity for clothing materials, in addition to Land Warrior, is the JSLIST P3I program. Specific improvements targeted by JSLIST P3I are launderability up to 10 washings without loss in protective capability, decontamination for reuse, lighter in weight, less prone to causing heat stress, and a minimum wear life of 45 days.
3.2.3.2 Technology Development. Applied research efforts in respiratory protection are focusing on new materials, designs, and manufacturing techniques for lenses, filters, seals, and other mask components. For lightweight CB protective clothing, selectively permeable membranes and membrane/fabric laminates are being developed to meet the goals that include eliminating the dependency on activated carbon. Further work will ensure the durability of garments fabricated from these materials as well as their launderability and potential decontaminability for reuse. Additional efforts are being focused on materials and designs for improved closure systems.
The limited resources for collective protection S&T efforts are being focused on improving existing technologies and systems. Technology development is also continuing in the areas of regenerative filtration (PSA modeling), advanced aerosol filtration materials and approaches, and fundamental efforts to correlate adsorbent composition and filtration performance. Beginning in FY97, new collective protection concepts will be examined, such as using monitors embedded into filter systems to alert users when the useful lifetime of a filter is approaching, thereby maximizing filter life and reducing the overall life-cycle cost and logistics support. Additionally, evaluation of current filter systems against high-production industrial chemicals that are less toxic than nerve agents, but still a potential threat, began in FY96 and will continue in FY97. In a related effort, measurement of filter performance at very low breakthrough levels (i.e., below "no-effects concentrations") will begin in FY97 in an effort to measure data that were previously impossible to obtain under these more critical evaluation conditions. Finally, adsorbent development efforts will continue and expand to examine the possibility of developing non-flammable adsorbents with performance close to that of existing filtration media and systems.
3.2.3.3 Basic Research. Basic research in agent reactive materials is being sponsored by the Army Research Office at Emory University and Oklahoma State University. These materials have the potential to be incorporated into clothing items to provide self-detoxification in future garments. The Office of Naval Research is sponsoring the development of microencapsulated phase change materials for heating and cooling in response to extreme temperature changes. Participants in this work are the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility, Naval Health Research Center, and the University of Minnesota. Cooling systems for special-purpose clothing using these materials have the potential to relieve heat stress. For respiratory and collective protection, fundamental studies of adsorption properties seek to unify several models that describe the adsorption properties of materials based on measured adsorption equilibrium data.
