Force Health Protection, Advanced Diagnostics/Therapeutics Research & Development (Budgeted) (Air Force)
Abstract
This project area seeks to deliver improved capabilities across the full spectrum of operations in the areas of Directed Energy and Occupational and Environmental Health. Research in the Directed Energy sub-project area seeks to develop technologies to "detect to warn" and "detect to protect" AF operators such that they can take appropriate actions to prevent or minimize exposure leading to adverse health effects. Research in the Occupational and Environmental Health sub-project area involves the assessment and implementation of innovative new technologies that enable effective surveillance, detection, identification, and mitigation of hazardous chemical, biological, and physical hazards that present a health risk to our forces and threaten to degrade and disrupt the missions they execute. Air Force FHP efforts focus on health protection across the spectrum of AF air and ground operations. These include hazards presented to high performance and high flyer aircraft crews facing extreme environments within their flight envelopes that are potentially more sensitive to physiologic and cognitive stressors and rely on aircraft systems to provide life support for protection. Because Air Force installations are typically very strategically important in combat execution, they are more often tied to performing ops at fixed locations; therefore, they drive the need to detect and identify the USAF- and environment-specific risks posed by chemical, biological, directed energy, and other radiological and physical hazards immediately and on-site so that operations can be resumed as quickly as possible. This requires enhanced monitoring capability, such as man-portable gold-standard hazard detection. Research is needed to improve these capabilities and to account for emerging threats. The mission needs driving the ability to detect also drives the need to rapidly reduce or mitigate threats once discovered. State of the art detection and monitoring equipment, therefore, is also an important FHP research need. Recently, research supporting flight line simulations helped guide infrastructure changes at fighter base to accommodate the receipt of aircraft and minimize heat damage to air/ground crews and other jets. Sensors entered into testing to guide methodology for base-level pilot breathing air characterization.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2021
- Source ID
- 49634d6852d90ec68f28569b0c6871c0