Ministry of Defense Spain, through General Subdirectorate for Planning, Technology and Innovation of the DGAM (Directorate General of Armament and Material) together with ISDEFE, General Directorate of Recruitment and Military Education and the University Defense Centers, have held the V National Congress of R&D in Defense and Security (DESEID 2017).
Toledo Infantry Academy hosted the celebration of this fifth congress on November 22th, 23th and 24th, 2017.
DESEI+D 2017 Congress is presented as a forum and meeting point for all agents related to R & D in the field of Defense and Security, whose objective is “Meeting the needs of the Armed Forces by incorporating new technologies that allow them to achieve an operational advantage and the evolution of their military capabilities are within the main objectives of Defense R & D & I. Likewise, another of the objectives that are sought is to contribute to the training of the Defense technological and industrial base, so that it can provide the necessary technological solutions and act as a link so that the innovative technological development present in the civil sphere is transferred to military applications. “
Organized in 7 main thematic areas: Weapons and Ammunition, Sensors and Electronic Systems, Platforms, Fighters, CBRNe, C4I and Society, Economy and Humanities, presentations developed during the congress contributed to reach those objectives.
In this context, Hispano Vema was selected to make a presentation entitled “R & D Project for the development of a decontaminating agent (RD50) for the decontamination of sensitive material and electronic equipment”, under the heading Area 5. CBRNe.
During presentation Alejandro Menchaca and Rafael Arruga, highlighted that due to the growing threat of terrorist attacks to Critical Infrastructures (Airports, Control and command centers, Telecommunications centers, etc). CBRNe incidents crisis management and response teams face a great challenge in the decontamination operations of the equipment of these Critical Infrastructures.
Conventional decontamination technologies (used for the decontamination of people, vehicles, materials or land) can not be used in Critical Infrastructure environments, since the decontaminating agents they use are water based (based on Hydrolysis and Oxidation reactions) ), which would damage the functionality and integrity of the electronic equipment and sensitive materials that are the basis of these Critical Infrastructures.
As pointed out by Alejandro Menchaca and Rafael Arruga, solving this problem has been the objective of Hispano Vema when developing their new decontaminantion agent RD50 for the chemical decontamination of electronic equipment and sensitive material.
Development of Decon agent RD50 is part of the research and analysis of the possibilities offered by Adsorption as a substitute for traditional Hydrolysis and Oxidation processes. On this premise Hispano Vema has managed to develop a decontaminating agent that performs the adsorption of the chemical contaminant agent on chemically modified silicas, combined with a carrier that ensures a homogeneous distribution of the silicas and that evaporates quickly without damaging the contaminated electronic components on that decontamination is done.
Finally, the carrier agent evaporates the remainder is a residue (denominated Decon Mixture, composed of the chemical agent pollutant adsorbed by the silicas) that through a mechanical removal is removed from the electronic equipment, resulting in a decontaminated electronic equipment and keeps fully its integrity and functionality.
As a summary, those attending the presentation stressed that the new decontaminating agent RD50 for the decontamination of electronic equipment represents a State-of-the-Art in decontamination technologies and a significant innovation that responds to one of the great current challenges of Security and Defense policies, such as the protection of Critical Infrastructures in the face of growing threats of terrorist attacks, and particularly in the decontamination of Critical Infrastructures affected by an incident with chemical agents: both ITCs (Industrial Toxics Agents) and CWAs (Chemical Warfare Agents)
