A new breaching grenade technology developed by the UK Government has been licensed to Energetics Technology Limited (ETL) in a deal that will improve Explosive Method of Entry (EMOE) operations and improve safety for operatives.

UK-based ETL, a specialist in energetic materials and blast products, has taken a licence for a 40mm stand-off breaching grenade technology developed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The deal was brokered by Ploughshare Innovations in its role as the MOD’s Technology Transfer Office.

The Stand-off Breaching Grenade is designed for use in scenarios where there is a need to breach locked doors to gain access to a building or room. It is particularly advantageous for operations in built-up urban environments and use within buildings and other confined spaces where current door breaching rounds cannot be deployed safely.

The design, developed over several years of research by Dstl, can deform a variety of door materials – including multi-lock steel doors – to enable access by the breaching team. The improved directional control of the explosive blast lowers the risk to the breaching team and reduces their stand-off distance. Fragmentation effects behind the door are also minimised which reduces collateral damage.

Because the blast can be highly targeted, a reduced amount of explosive can be used. This reduction in Net Explosive Quantity (NEQ) makes the grenades less hazardous to use, handle, store and transport than conventional alternatives.

Defence Minister Jeremy Quin said: “The development of this technology is a great example of how Defence collaborates with industry and academia to promote innovation. The UK’s commitment to Defence Innovation is steadfast, signified by the MOD’s £6.6 billion commitment to Research and Development over the next four years.

“Supported by our investment into research, science and technology, this cutting-edge design delivers vital improvements for users across a range of environments.”

Nick Joad, Director MOD Defence Science & Technology (DST), said: “The Defence S&T Strategy and the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy both place significant emphasis on the positive partnerships between industry, academia and government.

These linkages enable us to make the most of the increased spending in research and development through the latest Spending Review. They also contribute to wider Government objectives by encouraging local investment and employment, increasing local prosperity across all the regions and nations of the UK.

The licensing of this technology is a great example of research driving into capability, which will directly benefit our armed forces, as well as the contribution it provides to the local community in Derbyshire.”

Dr Peter Jemmett, Managing Director at ETL, part of the international Etienne Lacroix Group, said: “This advanced technology is a game-changer for tactical operations, giving breaching teams improved logistical capabilities and increasing operational effectiveness while reducing risk.

“We are grateful to Ploughshare Innovations for their assistance that has allowed us access to this Dstl innovation. It will strengthen our portfolio further and will enable us to deliver capability to a wide range of defence and homeland security users.”

Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, CEO of Ploughshare Innovations, said: “We are delighted to be playing our part in bringing this technology to market. It is a prime example of our commitment to working with innovative companies to bring the results of Government research to market for the benefit of UK businesses and to deliver capability to our defence and security services.”

The technology licensed to ETL is one of more than 125 licensed to companies since Ploughshare Innovations was founded to enable businesses to gain access to defence and security technologies developed by leading government laboratories.

For more information see www.ploughshareinnovations.com

Photo credit: U.S. Marine Corps / Cpl. Justin Updegraff. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

From homelandprepnews.com

Stratatech Corporation and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) achieved major milestones this week with the announcement of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for StrataGraft, a treatment for adults with thermal burns.

Stratagraft is specifically meant for burns containing intact dermal elements for which surgical intervention is needed. The product consists of allogeneic cultured keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts in murine collagen. It can deliver viable cells to support the body’s ability to heal and can be cryopreserved in the meantime.

The treatment is meant for use in operating room-like conditions and can be sutured, stapled, or secured with a tissue adhesive.

For Stratatech, approval marks a major turning point for the product, which Stratatech and BARDA began developing in 2015. For the medical world at large, it represents an advancement in treating deep, partial-thickness burns, giving burn surgeons access to a new biologic treatment and reducing the need for autografting. In a phase three clinical trial, 96 percent of areas treated by StrataGraft did not require autografting as a result.

BARDA has been with the product since early development. With its approval, the organization achieved its 61st approval, licensure, or clearance of such a public-private partnership supported countermeasure over the last 15 years.

HumanSystems^®  Incorporated has been awarded $1,000,000 through the Department of National Defence’s (DND) Innovation For Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS)  program to continue its development of the Citadel™ (Pat. Pending) respirator designed to better protect soldiers in hazardous chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) environments. 

This project follows a previous IDEaS contract to HumanSystems^®  Incorporated in 2019 to develop a proof of concept design. Working with the DND’s science and technology organization, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), the goal of this twelve-month project is to further develop the Citadel™ respirator design to the point where it can be tested in realistic operational environments.

“Recent changes to Canadian Armed Forces policies allow for short beards and longer hairstyles. This funding will bring the novel Citadel™ respirator concept closer to commercialization and to providing a more protective CBRN Respirator/Mask for individuals with various face/head shapes, hairstyles, and/or facial hair,” says Harry Angel, the HSI^® Citadel™ project technical lead.

The proof of concept Citadel™ respirator was designed to mitigate any leakage of contaminants into the respirator mask caused by various face shapes and/or beards or facial stubble.  In preliminary user testing, individuals with beards or facial stubble could not achieve an acceptable fit factor with the standard protective mask, meaning that they were susceptible to contaminants entering the mask. The Citadel™ respirator design was able to achieve an acceptable fit factor well above the minimum acceptable standard. These promising results showed that people with beards and facial stubble would be significantly less vulnerable to contaminants entering the respirator mask.

The HSI^® technical team, Harry Angel and Jordan Bray-Miners, bring over 30 years of experience in human factors for personal protective equipment, biomechanics and instrumentation design.

“The HSI^® team is proud to work with DRDC and to advance the HSI® Citadel™ respirator concept to better protect people in the armed forces and wherever such protection might be needed,” says Jordan Bray-Miners, Senior Consultant at HSI^®.

IDEaS supports the development of solutions from their conceptual stage, through prototype testing and capability development. The program includes several elements that promote collaboration between innovators, provides developmental resources and provides opportunities to interact with DND’s science and military members. Through which all innovators are on an even playing field to solve specific defence and security challenges. For more about the program, see here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/programs/defence-ideas.html

About HumanSystems^®(www.humansys.com )

For more than 35 years, with clients in Canada, the U.S. and other countries, HSI^® has been a leader in human factors and human system integration support. We work in sectors including defence, emergency responders, health care, occupational safety and utilities. Individually and for teams, HSI^® helps integrate people, performance and technology so systems work effectively, efficiently and safely. HSI^® services include research, design, validation and training management. We focus on user fit between the abilities of the people and the technologies that together make up any system. In this way, HSI^® supports product and system developers as well as procurement decision makers to reduce risks, lower life cycle costs and benefit return on investment.

Dr Christopher Timperley is made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his service to UK Defence and Security. His work has been vital to the global non-proliferation policy and decision making in the campaign against chemical weapons. In particular his selfless dedication during his four year post as the first ever UK Chair of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Scientific Advisory Board through a period during the use of nerve agents in both Syria and Salisbury.

Christopher said: "I’m indebted to those that nominated me for this honour. It recognises the central role of chemistry in helping to secure a world free of chemical weapons, and the collective endeavours of talented colleagues, nationally and internationally. I also thank my wife and family for their amazing support over many years." 

More information here

Proengin is thrilled to announce its very first “Proengin Academy” Event. 

On the 21st of June, Christina Baxter & Scott Hartley will discuss risks Hazmat Teams are facing when responding to a Chemical Suicide Event and share about best practices around Chemical Threat Detection & Monitoring. 

Register here 

Globally, there are 800,000 deaths by suicide annually or one suicide every 40 seconds. This represents 1.4% of global deaths with some countries having rates as high as 5%. These numbers are likely low estimates as reporting is inconsistent or not recorded. Chemical suicide in the United States have remained at a static rate of 0.4 deaths per 100,000 people for the past decade. This rate correlates to approximately 1500 deaths annually. Sadly, the overall suicide rate remains at approximately 50 deaths per 100,000. While the overall proportion of suicides involving the use of chemicals (excluding alcohol & drugs) remains low, due to the nature of the exposures the risk to the emergency response community is high. The chemical suicide methods have continued to evolve due to changes in the access to raw materials and methods. New methods are shared widely through various internet sites and chat rooms with many providing high specificity on the chemical amounts recommended. While organophosphate ingestions historically have represented the most chemical suicides, more recent trends have been towards Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) and Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN). This is partly due to tighter regulations on the organophosphates worldwide as well as the inclusion of vomiting agents in many to minimize the chance of accidental ingestions. Other methods include Phosphine (PH3), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Sodium Azide (NaN3), Sodium Nitrite (NaNO2), and inert gases such as Helium (He). Join Emergency Response TIPS and Proengin for a free webinar on a risk-based approach for the determination of suicide methods. Attendees will receive guidance documents on using the AP4C by Proengin in conjunction with LEL and oxygen readings to help identify threat materials.

Bavarian Nordic has announced that they have been engaged by Public Health England (PHE) and the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to supply its IMVANEX smallpox vaccine in response to new cases of monkeypox in the UK. Two related cases were confirmed and admitted to a hospital in Liverpool. One was most likely infected in Africa, where the family arrived from a few days before onset of disease, and a sibling case most likely infected on UK soil by the first case. 

Monkeypox is a rare, but serious disease, which is endemic in Central and West Africa. The disease is quite similar to human smallpox, although it is less severe with an estimated fatality rate of 1-10%. 

IMVANEX (MVA-BN) is approved by the European Commission for active immunization against smallpox but has also received approval for monkeypox by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada, as the only vaccine approved for this indication in these territories. Bavarian Nordic previously delivered IMVANEX to PHE in connection with the first human cases of monkeypox in the UK in 2018 and later in 2019, when several unrelated human cases were imported from Nigeria with a subsequent infection of a healthcare worker in the UK.

Paul Chaplin, President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic said: “We are pleased to assist Public Health England rapidly in such an emergency situation. Vaccination is a critical measure to prevent and control the spread of diseases globally. Governments have an essential role in preparing for outbreaks by stockpiling vaccines and treatments so that they are readily available in events like this. We have a long history of working with other governments on strengthening their national preparedness in outbreak situations, and we urge more countries to actively consider and mitigate the risks of diseases like monkeypox, which unfortunately is on the rise in Africa and has in recent years shown to cross borders several times.”

Recently we have seen reports of cases of avian and swine influenzas showing up in humans. This of course does happen from time to time, but we presently seem to have a bit of a rash of cases. 

From outbreaknewstoday.com

H5N6 avian influenza case reported in Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Officials with the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection (CHP) report monitoring a human case of avian influenza A(H5N6) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.The case involved a 49-year-old woman living in Chengdu. She developed symptoms on May 13, and was admitted for treatment on May 16. The patient is now in serious condition. From 2014 to date, 31 human cases of avian influenza A(H5N6) have been reported by the Mainland health authorities.

Germany: H1N1v influenza case reported in teen
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports on a a human case of infection with an influenza A(H1N1)v virus in Germany recently. The individual infected is a 17-year-old boy from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania who developed an influenza-like illness onset on 18 April 2021. The virus was confirmed with genome sequencing conducted at the National Influenza Centre (NIC) at the Robert Koch Institute in a sample collected as part of routine sentinel surveillance. Sequencing indicated the virus belonged to the Eurasian avian-like (EA) lineage of swine influenza A viruses, specifically clade 1C.2.1. The patient worked on a swine farm a few days prior to illness onset. After developing respiratory symptoms, he was isolated as SARS-CoV-2 infection was suspected. There were no symptoms in other workers at the farm or other members of the case’s family and the case has recovered. Further animal health and virological investigations are ongoing.

H1N2v influenza case reported in Taiwan
The Taiwan Center for Disease Control has reported a human H1N2v influenza case in a 5-year-old girl living in the central area. She had mild illness (fever, runny nose and cough) and didn’t require hospitalization and was engaged in livestock breeding at home. H1N2 is a low-pathogenic influenza virus that exists in pigs. It rarely spreads among people, but there are occasional reports of human infection. A total of 30 confirmed cases of H1N2v influenza worldwide from 2012 to 2021 are distributed in the Americas, with the United States reporting the most cases, followed by Brazil. Most cases have a history of pig exposure or have been exposed to a contaminated environment.

China reports 1st known human case of H10N3 avian influenza
Chinese health authorities have reported the first known human case of H10N3 avian influenza in a man from Jiangsu Province in east-central China. The patient, a 41-year-old man, presented with fever and other symptoms on April 23. At present, the patient’s condition is stable and basically meets the discharge standard. On May 28th, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a whole genome sequence determination of the patient specimens sent from Jiangsu Province , and the result was positive for the H10N3 virus. All close contacts were monitored and no additional cases were detected.

Laos reports 1st human H5N6 avian influenza case
The first human case of avian influenza A(H5N6) virus infection has been reported in Laos. A five-year-old boy from Luang Prabang province in northern Laos developed symptoms on 28 February 2021, was hospitalized and tested positive for A(H5N6) on 8 March 2021. The boy recovered. He had exposure to poultry. The poultry tested positive for H5N6. None of the contacts at home or in the hospital had the disease. This is the first avian influenza A(H5N6) case reported to WHO from Lao PDR. To date, a total of 31 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with influenza A(H5N6) virus have been reported (30 in China and 1 in Laos).

Teledyne FLIR announced it has won a contract to develop the first mass-wearable chemical detector for U.S. troops under the Pentagon’s Compact Vapor Chemical Agent Detector (CVCAD) program. The company received $4.0 million in initial funding.

Currently, troops lack the protection of an individually worn sensor. They rely on mostly larger devices and alarms that alert entire units of a local chemical hazard. The new, lightweight CVCAD sensor will provide the benefit of individual protection for every warfighter, particularly all U.S. Soldiers and Marines conducting ground operations.

For CVCAD, Teledyne FLIR will produce a unique dual-sensor device that detects chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals, as well as flammable gases and enriched or depleted oxygen levels that may indicate an explosive atmosphere. The detector will warn Soldiers and Marines of immediate danger. It will determine whether the air is safe to breath and if troops can fire a weapon without concern for explosion, especially in confined spaces. The sensor also can be integrated on an unmanned aerial system for remote reconnaissance.

“This is an important effort for our nation’s chem-bio defense program as toxic weapons represent a serious, growing threat to our military personnel,” said Roger Wells, VP and general manager of Unmanned Systems & Integrated Solutions at Teledyne FLIR. “Putting a wearable CVCAD sensor on all warfighters will offer an unprecedented level of chemical threat awareness, enabling them to perform their primary mission with far greater safety.

“The award underscores our expertise in intelligent sensing, unmanned systems, and other mission-critical technologies Teledyne FLIR delivers to safeguard lives,” Wells added.

CVCAD is a program of record funded and jointly managed by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA’s) Joint Science and Technology Office, and by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical Biological and Radiological/Nuclear Defense (JPEO CBRND).

CVCAD is the fourth installment in the Next Generation Chemical Detector series of programs aimed at fielding a family of improved chemical detectors to U.S. Joint Services, as well as the third award Teledyne FLIR has received in the series. CVCAD is a Joint Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Program designed to rapidly mature prototype devices under DTRA guidance and then transition them to JPEO-CBRND for advanced development and procurement.

The five-year contract consists of a 12-month first phase, 10-month second phase, plus two follow-on options. Work will be performed at company locations in Pittsburgh and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Teledyne FLIR safeguards people and property by providing tools that see and sense harmful Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE) substances. For more on the company’s threat detection products, visit www.teledyneflir.com/threat-detection/.

Kromek is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a new c. $6m contract by the DARPA for Phase II of its development of a biological threat detection system that senses, analyses and identifies airborne pathogens. Kromek will deliver the contract over the next 28-month period, commencing immediately.

Phases I and II are an extension of the existing SIGMA network for biological threats as part of DARPA's SIGMA+ initiative. Phase II follows the successful completion of Phase I where key milestones achieved over the past two years included the development of a vehicle-mounted biological-threat identifier as well as a miniaturised mobile wide-area bio-surveillance system. This new contract takes the overall programme value awarded to Kromek to c. $13m. Phase II will seek to deliver a completely automated wide spectrum airborne pathogen detection system that is fully mobile and runs autonomously. Also, systems will be designed to be networked where data is stored, shared and further analysed and provide real-time information to decision makers.

Key milestones under Phase II include the creation of beta units as well as final design and build of systems for extended field trials. In addition to the design process, the bioinformatics methodologies will be refined as data is collected for both enhanced performance and increased speed. Dr Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek, said: “In addition to the ever-present danger of bio-terrorism, the outbreak of the pandemic has exposed the world to the severity of biological threats and their potential impact on public health and the global economy, and has demonstrated the need to rapidly evolve bio-security systems and associated technologies. This contract will allow us to continue our work in developing a mobile wide-area bio-surveillance system capable of detecting airborne pathogens in real-time. We look forward to reporting on our progress as we deliver on our milestones.”

The claim to the 'world's most advanced respirator' has just lost a contender. 3M/Scott are no longer producing the First Responder Respirator (FRR) the export version of the UK MoD's General Service Respirator (confusingly the maintenance and resupply of this has been an Avon responsibility since 2019). CBRNe World had heard concerns from numerous FRR customers over the future of their new respirator and we posed the question to their corporate press team. 

From DEVCOM CBC

A new qualifying standard for military grade carbon used in gas masks and protective filters has been developed by a partnership of experts in chemical and biological protection, eliminating U.S. reliance on a single source for this critical material.

Experts at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) joined forces with the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) and other defense agencies to solve a problem nearly 30 years in the making.

It all began in 1992 when the DoD replaced the chromium-containing carbon it had used for 50 years with a safer, but harder to obtain, carbon for gas masks and protective filters. This safer carbon is known as ASZM-TEDA, which is an acronym for the metals imbedded in it as part of the supplier’s manufacturing process. These metals are less toxic and safer for the user than chromium. The formulation was developed by the Center scientists working with the supplier. The problem was that only one supplier had the ability to mine the material and to treat it with this mix of metals.

DoD first assembled a team in 2012 to solve the problem. It launched a project it called Activated Carbon Capability Expansion, or ACCE, under the Defense Production Act Title III Office. The project’s mission was to qualify other sources to supply military-grade carbon, the key filtration technology used in gas masks and large-scale protective filters. In 2016, DoD awarded a contract to its existing carbon source to expand its capabilities and another to a second private business to serve as a second source entirely.

The newly stood up ACCE team went straight to the Center for its expertise in protective carbon testing, and also because the Center scientists established the original qualifying standard for ASZM-TEDA in the late 1980s. This standard is known as MIL-DTL-32101, and it was relied upon to test the sole supplier’s carbon from 1992 on. The ACCE team had originally hoped to go on using that standard for qualifying any new vendors. However, when ACCE found a second supplier and awarded a contract to it, the experts at the Center advised against it.

“We had to tell the ACCE team that, no, 32101 alone is not enough to qualify a second vendor,” said Lowry Brooks, acting deputy director of engineering at DEVCOM CBC. “That standard had been in use since 1992 because all the carbon delivered for filters came from the same vendor, mining the same material from the same mine, impregnating the carbon with the same metals the same way.”

Brooks and his team persuaded the ACCE project team that with an additional carbon source, none of those steps would be performed exactly the same way. A more comprehensive qualification standard would be needed. The Center formed a team that included nine of its branches, each with its own expertise. They worked overtime to meet a strict DoD deadline to develop a better standard. The result was MIL-DTL-32101B.

While this was a significant accomplishment, it was clear that further improvements to the specification were required to confidently qualify new carbon suppliers. The updated specification was more comprehensive, but it still relied heavily on limited historical data points. Getting up-to-date data through current live agent tests would require more funding.

The Center persuaded the ACCE team that because protective carbon is a life-supporting material, it was vital to base the standard on current testing. The standard also had to be expanded to include chemical threats that have emerged since 1992. In addition, the Center needed to calculate the shelf life of protective carbon material under tropical, desert, and arctic conditions.

The alternative – relying on old, less comprehensive data – would not have qualified the new vendor with enough confidence. In fact, without current real-world testing, the new standard might not even be able to qualify the current vendor’s expanded capabilities. The more expensive path turned out to be the only path, and the Center collaborated with the ACCE, the JPEO-CBRND and with U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) to secure funding for the Center to perform a year-long study.

The team of nine Center branches performed the necessary testing and established a current data set over the course of 2018, and in 2019 they started updating the specifications for MIL-DTL-32101B. The architect for all this was Ryan Bearekman, the Center’s program manager for the effort. “The work spanned a lot of areas and disciplines,” said Bearekman. “We needed chemists who could design and perform tests to challenge the carbon using a wide range of live chemical agents. And, we needed people trained in how to stress the carbon in our unique environmental chambers that simulate arctic, desert, and tropical conditions.”

Bearekman also needed engineers who understood the supply chain and experts in quality control and quality assurance of materials. He got both from the Center’s Rock Island, Illinois research campus. “The Sustainment Engineering Protection Branch provided the experts who were the real authors and architects of MIL-DTL-32101B. They have been working on military specifications for decades and knew exactly how to codify them so that they would be understandable to all.” Bearekman said.

A key feature of the new standard is that it is based on detailed measurements of the length of time it takes for agents to break through the carbon. Different chemical agents take different lengths of time to break through a carbon layer and render it no longer protective. Other variables that need to be measured are the breakthrough times of each agent at different carbon bed thicknesses and airflow velocity.

Finally, the overall effort needed to be overseen by a DoD management team. That is where the Defense Production Act Title III team came in. The team was staffed largely by experts from JPEO-CBRND. They functioned as an all-star team of program management experts. They ran the ACCE program interim project review meetings and made sure that the individual specialized technical teams functioned smoothly within the larger whole.

DoD accepted the updated standard, now known as MIL-DTL-32101Bw/AMD2, as the official new standard in 2020. It uses the new data to pass or fail batches of carbon material with a high degree of confidence so that users of gas masks and protective filters know they will be safe.

The new standard was quickly put to use to qualify a second vendor, a Colorado-based biosciences manufacturing company. It will also be used to qualify the long-time sole supplier’s second manufacturing facility which it plans to open soon.

“Once the second vendor has been fully qualified using the new standard and the original supplier has a second facility up and running, users of gas masks and protective filters throughout the DoD will no longer be just one production line or supply chain problem away from a serious supply disruption,” said Brooks. “Everyone wins, DoD, the user community, the new supplier, and the taxpayers who get the benefit of increased competition.”

A major user of this carbon will be TACOM. They provide storage, maintenance, and distribution of the collective protection filters used in armored vehicles and ships. The group chief who participated with this effort, Dave Franing, was very pleased with the result. “The Chemical Biological Center ensured all stakeholders were involved and informed through all stages of the project. The team’s technical decisions were reached after careful consideration of all stakeholder input. That inclusive approach was a key contribution to the success in qualifying a second source for carbon production.”

A recent multidisciplinary exercise at the National Training Centre CBRN involved a special player, none other than Spot! The scenario was an attack on a metro station in which not only firearms were used, but also possible CBRN agents were deployed. The exercise involved the CBRN Responseenheid, EODD, RIVM and LTFO working together to bring this difficult case to a safe conclusion. The chemical was identified by reconnaissance, people were disinfected and forensic traces  secured. Finally, the Police Specialist Operations Service brought in the exploratory assistance of their mechanical four-legged friend 'Spot'.