Chemical warfare detection technology

Fisher, M. M. la Grone, C. Cumming, and E. Towers. Utilization of chemical vapor detection of explosives as a means of rapid minefield area reduction, in Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Technology and the Mine Problem, Mine Warfare Association, Monterrey, California, April 2002. 

Boiarski, A.A., Bowen, G.W., Durnford, J., Kenny, D.V. and Shaw, M.J., State-of-the-Art Report on Biological Warfare Agent Detection Technologies (Rep. No. SP0900-94-D-0002), Chemical and Biological Defense Information Analysis Center, Ft. Belvoir, 1995. 

The Joint Service Agent Water Monitor (JSAWM) is a funded Department of Defense program that is intended to identify, mature and develop the technology needed for specific and sensitive detection of chemical warfare agents (CWA) in source, treated, stored and distributed water supplies. According to the JSAWM criteria, a successful detection system will function in heterogeneous liquid environments, have less than a 10 minute response time with low false alarms, work in both continuous (on-line monitoring) and batch modes, be portable, small, easy to operate, and have very low power requirements. ... 

Y. Sun and K. Y. Ong, Detection Technologies for Chemical Warfare Agents and Toxic Vapors (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2005). 

In addition to the need to process large quantities of samples that technology produces more and more prolihcally, the demand for faster analytical response is also borne from applications where analysis time is inherently critical, as with first-responders and held soldiers sampling the air to check for the presence of chemical warfare agents (CWA). DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which commissions advanced research for the Department of Defense, is funding the development of micro gas analyzers (MGA) suitable for portable and virtually instant CWA detection. 

Robert A. Beaudet is chair of the NRC Committee on Review and Evaluation of Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons (I and II). He received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Harvard University and has served on U.S. Department of Defense committees that address offensive and defensive chemical warfare. Dr. Beaudet was a member of the Army Science Board and chaired a committee that addressed chemical detection and trace gas analysis. He was chair of a series of Air Force technical workshops to develop master R D plans for... 

In addition, the report of the House of Representatives Special Committee alluded to 31 nations that either possess or have the ability to develop an offensive chemical weapons capability, and 11 nations that either possess or have the ability to develop an offensive biological weapons capability. The Special Committee realized that while it would be more difficult for a country to mass-produce classic chemical warfare agents in large quantities without detection, it would be very easy for a country or organized group to develop the technological capabilities to produce other agents.2... 

D. D. Lee and J. C. Kim (2011) Sensing technology for detection of chemical warfare agents, 9th ACCS,Taiwan, November. 

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