To significantly reduce the complexity and cost of blister agent decontamination operations, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency developed an enhanced technology, the Contamination Indicator Decontamination Assurance Spray (CIDAS). This spray will provide our warfighters with vivid color indication when a blister agent is present within minutes, rather than hours.
Through the use of innovative chemistries, DTRA achieved improvements to color indication and shelf life of a mustard (specifically, the HD variety) indicator. Researchers tested this new formulation on a variety of surfaces including weapons, tactical vehicles and aircraft, under various temperatures and environmental conditions. The new formulation provided a significant improvement in the red color indication and a 50 percent improvement in stability under extreme temperature cycling between 70 degrees and 25 degrees Celsius.
Having access to a suite of CIDAS formulations will enable warfighters to visually locate blister, nerve and non-traditional agent contamination in operational conditions. CIDAS provides the warfighter actionable information to reduce the threat of a blister agent and enable more accurate decontamination processes. Further reducing time and costs, CIDAS allows “spot or pinpoint decontamination” to identify specific areas rather than using resources to treat an entire surface.
During a CIDAS capabilities demonstration at the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, one participant noted that CIDAS “will change Army doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures for all phases of decontamination and will save lives, resources and time by introducing a new methodology for decontaminating.” CIDAS increases efficiencies in the decontamination process, allowing warfighters and equipment to return to the battlefield sooner.
DTRA’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department recently transitioned the improved HD technology to the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense for further technological evolution.