Defense Department Buys $1 Million Worth of Bruker s Chemical Weapons Sensors

NEW YORK, Feb. 4 - The US Department of Defense has bought more than $1 million worth of Bruker Daltonics' chemical weapons sensors, the company said on Monday.

The sensor, called RAPID, uses passive infrared technology to identify chemical warfare agents at a distance. It detects the characteristic "fingerprint" of certain toxic chemical compounds in the near-infrared spectrum and compares these against reference data.

According to the company, the system is able to detect toxic chemicals at distances up to 5 kilometers, or just over 3 miles, and can also be used on the move.

Bruker struck a $10 million contract with the DoD last fall to provide ion trap-mass spectrometer systems for on-site chemical and biological weapons detection.

The company projects biodefense and chemical defense products to become a more significant part of revenues. These products recently represented only 7 percent of Bruker Daltonics revenue, but the firm expects that percentage to increase to 15 percent to 20 percent.