Defense: Once-Rejected Military Technology May Now Have Civilian Uses
Certain technologies to detect biological and chemical agents deemed impractical for battlefield use might well be revived for civilian use.
“I refer to it as technology we discarded,” said Army Maj. Gen. John C. Doesburg, taking a break from a speaking engagement early last week in San Diego.
Doesburg, who oversees laboratories investigating ways to defend against chemical and biological attacks, was in town for the International Crowd Management Conference. The conference attracted executives overseeing stadiums, theaters and other entertainment venues. Among other things, conference organizers touched on terrorism.
Organizers of major events, like political conventions and diplomatic summits, have deployed chemical and biological agent detectors over the past half-decade, Doesburg said. Increasingly this military technology is making its way into public places.
Defense contractors realize this.
“Folks large and small now see that there is a capability beyond the Department of Defense for their technology,” said Doesburg.
And chemical and biological weapons detection, which only attracted small contractors 10 years ago, now attracts names like Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co.
“In fact, Boeing is even doing some work for me now,” he said.
Contractors may do well to review some history while developing products for civilian use.
Doesburg told conference participants about paper chemical detectors the U.S. military developed 50 years ago. The paper tickets changed color when dipped into certain substances. At $2.50 per packet, they were cheap to produce.
The technology was rejected for the battlefield. More expensive detectors were developed. They were state-of-the-art, battery-operated monitors that required daily attention to function at their best.
Now, several decades later, civilian agencies are trying the same monitors , and finding they require too much maintenance.
In certain cases, the discarded paper chemical detectors may best serve the needs of first responders like police and firefighters, Doesburg said.
Those who would dismiss military technology as too expensive may not see that civilian versions of the technology may be cheaper.
The military hardens its devices against all sorts of conditions, like extreme heat, extreme cold, sand, dust, smoke and the electromagnetic pulse generated by nuclear explosions.
Civilian devices do not need that hardening, which adds to the Pentagon’s price tag.
So, for example, a contractor might want to take an ion mobility spectroscopy device out of its hardened shell to come up with a civilian chemical agent monitor.
Doesburg is commanding general of the U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command at Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground. Among other things, he oversees eight domestic chemical weapons storage sites. Part of his job is to monitor the sites and keep the nearby communities safe.
None of the sites are in Southern California.
Doesburg reported an increasing number of people are bringing him technologies to test.
“Some of it is real questionable,” he said with a laugh, “and I’m glad that I’m testing it, so that when people ask, I can tell them what I truthfully think about it.”
Other technology he sees is “amazing” and could well be the next generation of chemical and biological detectors.
The International Association of Assembly Managers, based in Coppell, Texas, produced the three-day conference at the U.S. Grant Hotel and the Wyndham San Diego at Emerald Plaza.
