Engineers and scientists developing new lightweight military respirator

Could the bulky gas mask that has been around for more than a century become a thing of the past?

Engineers and scientists are working together to develop a new lightweight military respirator, designed for small-scale chemical attacks.

Avon Protection has been providing respiratory systems for British troops since the First World War and now wants to move to a modular lightweight system, made possible due to advances in technology.

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Steve Elwell, president at Avon Protection, said: "Today's respiratory protection is relatively claustrophobic – you've got rubber very close to the face, you're in an enclosed environment – so, in the future what we are looking at is much more modular systems."

The development of the new systems has been influenced by a change in the global security situation.

Mr Elwell added: "The threat of large-scale chemical attacks is not such an issue anymore, but small-scale, the availability of industrial chemicals through bad actors, bad state actors, allows the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.

"Of course, [during] the recent Covid pandemic, you started to see national shortages of PPE equipment, that biological threat, leakage from laboratories, or anything like that, providing that respiratory protection enables people to operate safely in those sorts of environments."

This kit is in the final stages of development but could be available in a year's time.