Thwarting
the Unthinkable
AES is developing a new technology
for detecting deadly chemical agents unleashed by terrorists or hostile
armies
News
stories alerting us to the threat from weapons of mass destruction
tend to focus on nuclear and biological weapons. Though less publicized,
the third member of the unholy trinity - chemical weapons - poses equally
grave danger.
A recent RAND Institute study for the state of California underscores
the risk. Their finding: a chemical sneak attack on San Francisco, San
Diego or Los Angeles would kill an estimated 80,000 people.
A full year before the September 11 attacks, ITT Industries' Advanced
Engineering & Sciences (AES) began working with the U.S. military on a
jointly funded evaluation into the feasibility of detecting lethal chemical
agents from a safe distance using electro-optical sensors.
Shown enough to convince them the system can work, the U.S. Army Soldier
and Biological Chemical Command in August awarded ITT an $8.3 million
contract to begin militarizing the concept.
The technology goes by the acronym LISA (Laser Interrogation of Surface
Agents) and employs technology that doesn't have to actually touch a chemical
molecule to identify its "signature" and distinguish a safe chemical from
harmful agents. The device being built by AES, called a Raman Spectrometer,
relies instead on an electro-optical reading of the molecule's surface.
"When the system becomes operational, it will represent a significant
advance over the currently deployed system," says Claudia Randolph, Ph.D.,
vice president in charge of NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) Strategic
Accounts, based in Alexandria, Virgina.
Dr. Randolph credits much of the project's success thus far to the technology
work by Scott Higdon's R&D team at the AES lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
(AES units in Colorado Springs and Huntsville, Alabama., also do NBC work.)
The terrorist threat and destructive potential of chemical contaminants
add urgency to the effort. "We're essentially trying to jump-start the
whole technology development process in order to get the system into the
field faster," explains Dr. Randolph.
AES's end goal is for ITT to manufacture the system, she says, and the
need for unprecedented speed has taken AES into "new waters." "Now
we are working with Tim Reid from ITT Industries developing a whole new
robust design and development process to move beyond R&D and into
manufacturing."
Story Ideas