Smiths Detection has received $7.2 million in follow-on awards from the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency for hazardous materials identification equipment. The company previously won a $4.5 million order last year from the services for HazMat equipment. Smiths says the new order further positions its portable HazMatID and handheld APD 2000 identifiers for Air Force emergency response teams worldwide. The Air Force will use the equipment to identify toxic industrial chemicals and materials and other unknown threats whether liquids, solids or vapors. “This follow on order is strong validation for our emergency response portable solutions that rapidly and reliably identify hazardous chemicals,” says Stephen Phipson, group managing director of Smiths Detection. “Our investment strategy in lightweight detection technologies has positioned the company as a provider of unique solutions to civil and military emergency response teams around the world.” The HazMatID can sample solids and liquids to identify for white powders, weapons of mass destruction, explosives and toxic chemicals. The APD 2000 is a chemical identifier for chemical warfare agents, pepper spray, mace and gamma radiation. Separately the Navy has selected Smiths military business unit to participate in an evaluation of a shipboard based chemical warfare agent detection program called the Improvised Point Detection System II. Smiths, along with Environics and Bruker BioSciences [BRKR], each will provide systems for the test phase that will get underway shortly and end this summer in a final downselect. Smiths says the long-term potential of the program in production is $50 million.
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