XM21 REMOTE SENSING CHEMICAL AGENT ALARM RSCAL 28 NOV 90

File: 090496_jul96_decls49_0003.txt
Page: 0003
Total Pages: 7
Subject: XM21 REMOTE SENSING CHEMICAL AGENT ALARM RSCAL  28 NOV 90       

Box  ID: BX000420

Document Number:         96

Folder Title: HISTORIANS BACKGROUND MATERIAL FILES - G3 NBC MIS 2  OF 4                                       

Folder Seq #:          3

Unit: ARCENT      

Parent Organzation: CENTCOM     



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                        (1) The  XM21 operational requirements are to detect
               nerve (GA, GB and GD) agent vapors at a 90 Mg/m2 CL
               (concentration (mg/m@) times the pathlength ?in) through the
               agent cloud along the XM21's line-of-sight) and blister agent
               vapors wi.th a sens4+-ivity of 500 Mg/m2 (lewisite) and 2300 Mg/m2
               (mustard). The t@@ical testing of the XM21 demonstrated that
               these requirements were exceeded. Technical testing also
               included testing with common battlefield interferents -- none of
               which adversely effected the XM21's performance or caused a
               false alarm. Additionally, an excursion over viewing a refinery
               was conducted with no adverse effects.
                       (2) The test program included laboratory
               transportation tests which simulated numerous miles of loose
               cargo transportation. The XM21 Alarm, in its transit case, did
               not survive this test. However, hundreds of successful real-
               life miles of restrained transportation were accumulated on the
               test systems in the course of testing at the numerous test sites
               with no problems experienced. Given the above, the XM21 should
               be transported as secured or restrained cargo could its transit
               case.
                      (3) Nuclear Survivability testing consisted of initial
               nuclear radiations (INR), high altitude exoatmospheric
               electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) and nuclear thermal.radiation
               (NTR). The testing indicated that the @21 Alarm did not meet
               the total gamma test objective; however, the detector's
               performance came close to meeting its requirement I A redesign
 this requirement and will be included in
               production XM21 Alarms. The other test which was not successful
               was the nuclear blast. Specifically' in the event of nuclear
               incident, the XM21 supported on its tripod could be blown over.
               Sand bagging is sugges@ed.
                      (4) Reliability calculations were made using the test
               data from technical testing. The mean-time-between-false-alarm
               (MTBFA) and mean-time-between-operational-mission-failure
               (MTBOMF) were computed for each test environment (Cold Region
               Test Center (CRTC), Ducjway Proving Ground (DPG), Yuma Provinq
               Ground (YPG) and Tropic Test Center (TTC). The MTBFA
               requirement was exceeded at DPG and TTC and the MTBOMF
               requirement was exceeded at only TTC. The temperatures
               experienced during the test program are as follows: DPG 25-69
               P; YPG 80-127 F; CRTC -33 - 36 P; TTC 69 - 90 F (43-100% RH)
               and initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) 49 - 91 @.
                           a. Numerous false alarms were experienced during
               the initial fFY89) phase of testing ai: YPG (desert environment.
               A hardware fix to the false alarm problem was successfully
               demonstrated during the second phase of YPG testing in FY90.

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