Mary-Louise Hoffman
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded FLIR Systems a potential five-year, $20.5 million contract to produce a fabric material with built-in features that could offer warfighters protection from harmful biological and chemical agents.
FLIR said Monday it initially secured $11.2 million from the agency to perform prototyping work under the Personalized Protective Biosystems effort with the goal of creating a suite of fabrics and garments for military use.
The company aims to help DARPA develop an integrated soldier protective system with embedded substances meant to reduce or mitigate the impact of threats such as the VX nerve agent, chlorine gas and deadly viruses.
ISPS will be designed with lightweight materials and prophylactic tools that work to protect vulnerable parts of the human body.
The agency intends for the system to help lessen the physiological burden for soldiers and other frontliners who use protective personal equipment, FLIR noted.
The contract has a base period of two years, an initial two-year option and an additional one-year extension.
