DoD Continues Investment In WMD Sensors

The 2010 defense budget just signed last month includes further funding for Platypus Technologies to continue their research and development of a sensor for chemical and biological weapons based on liquid crystals. The value of this contract which lasts one year is about $2 million. Platypus is one of the leading innovators in the use of this LCD technology for uses such as this. The goal is to have a hand held sensor that changes color or intensity based on what it detects.

Since Desert Storm in 1991 the U.S. military has been working hard to develop systems that detect chemical and other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) from a distance and more safely then the traditional swipe systems used for most of the last century. They have built ones based on lasers that can be vehicle mounted. This idea would work in the open air. Platypus needs to build a system that controls for variables like temperature and humidity while being able to detect trace amounts of gases and biological matter. This is what this research is focusing on. The company had previously received funding through the Defense Department’s Small Innovative Business Research (SBIR) program.

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