Aerosol Chemical and Biological Threat Detection and Identification for Critical Infrastructure

The use of chemical and biological agents against US forces and facilities is a growing threat,particularly in the highly contested Indo-Pacific area of responsibility (AOR) covering 36Nations, 14 time zones, and 60% of the world’s population. USINDOPACOM includes 380,000Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, Guardians, Coast Guardsmen and Department of DefenseCivilians all of whom are at risk from an infectious or lethal chemical or biological attack.Recent research highlights how pathogenic microorganisms can travel from China on air currentsto descend on Japan, which raises concerns about the spread of pathogens in the region and apotential bioweapon route. China’s rapid advances in dual-use biotechnology, includingbioinformatics, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and genomic editing, could enabledevelopment of novel biological weapons that complicate detection, attribution, and treatment.Furthermore, certain types of these agents can be used in area or equipment denial attackswhereby critical logistics activities in this huge AOR can be highly degraded. When logistics arecontested, the ability to prosecute the military mission can be deeply affected, as witnessedrecently by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.