If you keep up with the news, then you already know that a lot of the research and development funding awarded by the DoD relates to devices that can detect the big three threats -- chemical, biological and nuclear agents -- and medical-based solutions for treating life-threatening exposure to anthrax and radiation sickness.

Problem is, protecting military personnel on the battlefield does not translate to what the DoD also sees a prime target: domestic defense-related buildings themselves, which is why, in 2001, DARPA began work on the Immune Building Program.

Under the leadership of Wayne Bryden, Ph.D., the Immune Building Program is seeking ways to use the existing building infrastructure to protect its inhabitants from such attacks, especially since attacks by chemical or biological agent weapons do not disrupt this infrastructure -- walls remain standing, electrical power functions, air continues to circulate.

In 2004, DARPA awarded a $20 million, two-year contract to Battelle to serve as the lead systems integrator for the Demonstration Phase of the Immune Building Program. The work includes finding ways to combine new detection, filtration, neutralization and decontamination technologies as a systems-level protective strategy drawing heavily on modifications to existing HVAC and other in-place infrastructures.

Those two years are up, and according to DARPA's timeline, 2006 is the year the Battelle design will be implemented and the efforts demonstrated at test facilities at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo.

No word yet, from DARPA or Battelle, on when the demo will be held. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you want to see a cool animation of future warfare systems -- and the programs supporting them --- log on to DARPA's Special Projects Office site, www.darpa.mil/spo/index.html.

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