INSIDE THE PENTAGON
www.lnsideDefensecom
April 10, 2003

ARMY REPORTS ZERO FALSE ALARMS ON CHEMICAL AGENT DETECTOR

HUNT VALLEY, MD -- Soldiers monitoring the Iraq war zone for chemical agents report zero false alarms from a new device fielded in the late 1990s, according to Army Maj. Gen. John Doesburg, chief of the service's Research, Development and Engineering Command.

The reports arrive on his desk weekly, Doesburg told Inside the Pentagon, adding he cannot offer a 100 percent guarantee that no single false alarm has occurred. The reports from a "young major" responsible for maintenance of the detectors there, plus news from embedded media, give every indication that false alarms are not causing the same problems they caused in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, he said.

Doesburg spoke to an industry association here about upcoming contracting opportunities in chemical and biological defense (see related story).

Trans-Atlantic company Smiths Detection manufactures the device called the Automatic Chemical Agent Detector and Alarm, or ACADA. Weighing 10.6 pounds -- 14 pounds with a battery -- ACADA is installed in vehicles, around fixed sites for perimeter defense and can be handheld. The Army has purchased 22,000 of the detectors, at a cost of less than $ 10,000 per unit, according to Neil Bloomfield, vice president of tactical systems for the company.

ACADA is the predominate detection system deployed in the Persian Gulf, Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Reeves told reporters at the Pentagon early last month. Reeves is program executive officer for DOD chemical and biological defense.

The device replaced the Army's M81A detector, which picked up common battlefield chemical compounds during Operation Desert Storm, including fuels and propellant byproducts, combustion products, engine lubricants and fluids, burning organics, military smokes and obscurants and insecticides.

By comparison, ACADA rejects more than 80 battlefield chemical compounds, concentrating instead on nerve and blister agents, according to DOD. The device responds to exposure in about three seconds, according to the company. Bloomfield said it has also been environmentally tested to ensure its reliability in extreme climates. The trials were held in the Arizona desert, Panamanian jungle and cold Alaska.

To distinguish between chemical warfare agents and chemical compounds on the battlefield, ACADA uses ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) to continuously sample the environment, sister publication Inside the Army reported last month. The sampled air -- including any chemical agent compounds -- is pumped through an IMS chamber and exposed to a small radioactive source material. Exposure to the radiation compels the compounds to form ion clusters whose drift time through the chamber can be precisely measured. That drift time is a function of the clusters' velocity, shape and weight and is unique for each substance.

Other new chemical agent detectors fielded in the last six years are the Improved Chemical Agent Monitor and Remote Sensing Chemical Agent Alarm (M21 RSCAAL), according to DOD.

Doesburg this week noted numerable advances in chemical and biological defenses since the 1991 conflict, including new and improved individual protection suits and masks, and detection equipment, but said DOD needs even better protection.

"It's still not good enough," he said in refrain throughout his speech.

The general relayed a story about 5th graders experimenting with bubbles. The students filled a baby pool with water and soap, positioning one of their own in the center on a stool. A hoola hoop at the bottom of the pool was raised to create a large bubble around the sitting 5th grader.

"Isn't that amazing," Doesburg said. "How come we can't do that?" -- Catherine MacRae