The defense of the US armed forces against chemical and biological (CB) attack is transitioning from a focus on standoff detection of these threats to the concept of Early Warning (EW). In this approach an array of dual-use and low-burden dedicated use sensor capabilities are used to replace longer-range single use sensors to detect a CB attack. In this paper we discuss the use of passive broadband thermal imaging to detect chemical vapor clouds as well as a developing suite of compact UAV-borne chemical and radiological sensors for the investigation of threats detected by these indirect approaches. The sensors include a colorimetric ammonia sensor, a chemical sensor based on ion mobility spectrometry, and a radiation detector based on gamma ray scintillation. The implementation and initial field tests of each of these sensor modalities is discussed and future plans for the further development of the capability is presented.

Date Published: 22 May 2015
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 9455, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE) Sensing XVI, 94550U (22 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2177023

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9455:
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE) Sensing XVI
Augustus Way Fountain III, Editor(s)