Non-Toxic Obscurants and Dispersal System

SOCOM and other DOD services have urgent need for safe, non-toxic visual obscurants that can be rapidly dispersed in a battlefield or into a vehicle. These obscurants must block or disrupt all visual capability within their area of effect. The dispersion must be rapid and easy to implement by field personnel. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will develop a non-toxic obscurant and dispersion system compatible with current SOCOM equipment. The PSI obscurant innovation is based on particle size engineering of non-toxic, FDA-approved host materials. The second PSI innovation is to combine these materials with a similarly non-toxic, low-cost, rapid dispersion system. The dispersion approach is thermally benign, further reducing health risks and increasing the number of potential applications. During the Phase II program, PSI will improve the obscurant performance, engineer and test the dispersion approach and deliver a large set of prototype units for field testing. While the proposed development will focus on small unit vehicles, other applications include obscuration of personnel in rooms, courtyards and other enclosed areas. The combined obscurant and dispersion system will be delivered to the target volume with existing operational hardware and will accommodate additional payloads such as dyes, taggants, irritants or malodorants.