NEWTOWN, Conn: The U.S. Department of Defense will continue to support the advancement of technology to detect and identify chemical and biological attacks well into the next decade. To a large part, research, testing, and evaluation of the technologies that will form the Joint Biological Standoff Detection System (JBSDS) and other supporting systems will be leading the way.
Full-rate production of the finished product will follow – if all goes according to plan – by early next decade. The final JBSDS will be designed for fixed sites or mounting to a variety of platforms and will be capable of detecting biological weapon attacks in near-real time.
The Pentagon sees JBSDS as just one aspect of a much larger network of biological detection systems that will be adapted to every service in a wide variety of applications. The role of JBSDS will be to augment and integrate with these various other systems. Prime contractor Science & Engineering Services Inc stated that as many as 1,500 systems would ultimately be produced for the joint services.
RDT&E related to creation of the ultimate version of JBSDS is in large part a function of the Chemical/ Biological Defense System Development and Demonstration (SDD) program. In the FY09 defense budget, some $1.311 billion has been allocated for the program from 2009 through 2013.
