Army orders chemical detectors

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EDGEWOOD, Md., April 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has placed a $27 million order for chemical detector systems from Smiths Detection, the company reports.

The order was given under the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Chemical Agent Detector program to protect troops in the field.

The JCAD program is based on Smiths Detection's LCD 3.3, an advanced, light-weight device that can be easily strapped to a soldier's belt. The device samples the air constantly for the presence of chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals.

"The threat from a wide range of chemical weapons is both real and immediate and one that the military must be fully equipped to combat," said Smiths Detection President Mal Maginnis. "This latest order for our state-of-the art detectors establishes the JCAD program as by far the most important in the history of Smiths Detection."

Smiths Detection is supplying its enhanced M4A1 JCADs. Delivery of the units has already started, it said. The number of units to be supplied, however, wasn't revealed.

The units are being produced at the company's facility at Edgewood, Md.