The Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JSTO-CBD) requires a capability to defeat or disable an adversary’s Chemical and Biological (CB) munitions, bulk agent, and precursor materials during tactical operations.
An integral step is accessing the CB agents and precursor materials inside munitions. Through a rapid fielding Broad Agency Announcement, the DoD is seeking innovative technologies that provide access to CB materials in explosively configured munitions (e.g. artillery/mortar rounds and land mines) that will safely allow drainage or destruction of their chemical or biological agent contents.
Chemical Weapons Agents (CWAs) to be investigated include H, V, and G agents. Agent materials/precursors are those listed in Schedules 1 and 2 of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), or defined by the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
Proposed novel technology solutions should be able to achieve the following metrics:
- Access and safely drain/remove or destroy at least 90% of the CB agent/precursors
- Process up to 48 rounds of munitions (as large as 152 mm) within a threshold of 72-hours and as fast as 8-hours
Proposals must show how the access system would integrate with an end-to-end system that will process CB munitions, bulk agent, and precursor materials and serve as a complete defeat and disable process, to include waste stream disposal or containment.
Innovative solutions that are able to incorporate multiple process activities (e.g. access and destroy) into a single unit operation are encouraged.
The access system must meet the palletized cargo restrictions of a CH-47F Chinook helicopter (108 inches long, 88 inches wide, and 78 inches high) and not exceed the maximum weight of a NATO 463L pallet (10,000 pounds).
Proposed technical solutions should be “turn-key,” so that a munitions specialist could operate the system with a limited amount of additional training. CWA testing must be arranged by the offeror at a DoD CWA laboratory, or a DoD certified commercial CWA laboratory.
Further details are available via the FY 2017 Rapid Innovation Fund Broad Agency Announcement (HQ0034-17-BAA-RIF-0001B). The white paper submission deadline is May 19, 2017 3:00 pm Eastern.