FLIR Systems Inc. announced it has won an additional $15.4 million contract to deliver its FLIR Black Hornet® 3 Personal Reconnaissance Systems to the U.S. Army. The advanced nano-unmanned aerial vehicles are being used to augment squad and small unit-level surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities as part of the Army’s Soldier Borne Sensor program.
State-of-the-art personal protective equipment (PPE) can be bulky, heavy, and cumbersome, often severely limiting user mobility and performance. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Personalized Protective Biosystem (PPB) program aims to develop technology that reduces the need for burdensome protective equipment while increasing individual protection against chemical and biological threats.
To improve the nation’s defense against radiological threats, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) completed a technical refresh of 60 mobile Radiation Portal Monitors currently deployed and used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). CWMD supplies CBP with this capability to scan cargo for potential radiological threats.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced an internal review to address the threat of domestic violent extremism within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Secretary Mayorkas has made identifying, addressing, and preventing domestic violent extremism across the country a top priority.
A device from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Portable EnGineered Analytic Sensor with aUtomated Sampling (PEGASUS) is a miniaturized waveguide-based optical sensor that can detect toxins, bacterial signatures, viral signatures, biothreats, white powders, and more, from samples such as blood, water, CSF, food, and animal samples.
Deanne Criswell received confirmation to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). She brings nearly six years of prior FEMA experience to this role and is the first woman to lead FEMA since its creation in 1979.
Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a low-cost computer system that connects older public safety radios with the latest wireless communications networks, showing how first responders might easily take advantage of broadband technology offering voice, text, instant messages, video, and data capabilities. NIST’s prototype system could help overcome a major barrier to upgrading public safety communications.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is expanding pilot testing of a technology to improve the cybersecurity defenses of the nation’s emergency communications infrastructure. S&T funded SecuLore Solutions in the research and development of a cybersecurity defense solution based on predictive analytics and cyber data that helps detect and mitigate cybersecurity attacks against legacy emergency communications systems and new Next Generation 911 and Internet Protocol-based technologies.
A groundbreaking new Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate tracking and location technology, Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders (POINTER), will soon allow agencies to pinpoint their firefighters to within centimeters, helping to navigate them quickly and safely out of potentially disorienting emergency scenarios.
When responding to a chemical incident, mitigating long-term consequences of exposures is just as important as treating short-term injuries. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and FirstString Research have partnered to repurpose Alpha-connexin Carboxyl-Terminal 1 (aCT1) eye drops as a potential medical countermeasure against chronic eye injuries associated with sulfur mustard exposure.
