Defence

Avon Protection awarded US DoD ASPIRE HMI contracts

Posted 11 November 2024

Avon Protection has been awarded three contracts by the US Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) ASPIRE HMI (Advanced System for Protection and Integrated Reduction of Encumbrances Hood/Mask Interface) programme, which is executed by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND).

Image courtesy Avon Protection

The three contracts will cover the design and development of a solution to optimise integration between currently fielded M50 and M53A1 CBRN protective masks and CBRN protective garment hoods on a CBRN suit. Avon Protection will apply its extensive experience as a provider of CBRN protective systems to optimise integration of personal protective equipment.

Steve Elwell, President, Avon Protection, said: “The risk a customer faces when procuring protective equipment as individual systems from different suppliers is that there are potential integration issues at the points at which these different systems meet, no matter how advanced each individual system is.

“Our approach is to mitigate this risk by designing our equipment to integrate seamlessly together and it is this understanding of the importance of interface optimisation between systems that we will bring to our work on this contract.”

The DoD is a strategic partner for Avon Protection, with millions of Avon Protection M50/M51 and M53/M53A1 air purifying respirators (APRs) in use across all branches of the US military.