Seven-Year $38 Million Programme
Smiths Detection and Block MEMS will work together over the coming years to develop a PCAD (proximate chemical agent detector) for two US agencies.
The PCAD will be able to identify and classify solid and liquid threat agents on various surfaces. It is intended that the eventual end product will be able to detect and classify chemical weapons, toxic industrial chemicals, opioids, explosives, and non-traditional agents.
The programme is being run jointly by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Defense. The contract awarded to the two companies is worth $38 million. There will be five phases of research and development, which are expected to be completed over seven years. The core technology in the product will be Block’s quantum cascade lasers, which have received over $30 million in US government funding during their 10-year development.
