Military chemists contribute to the fight against covide
The Day of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces is celebrated on 13 November. On the eve of the holiday, the chief of the RHBZ units of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, answered the “MK” questions.
– Our officers must have increased attention, have mental stability when acting in the most adverse conditions when exposed to dangerous factors.
When working on technology with the device, it is necessary to concentrate attention, accuracy and fast visual and auditory perception, precise eye, absence of color blindness. >
Physical fitness is very important. The ability to quickly recover to physical performance is required. All this is achieved through long and demanding training.
You need perseverance to withstand long-term static loads, for example in radiation sites, chemical and biological observations, in special machines, laboratories.
Humans are known to have various phobias. For example, chemophobia. It is a state of induced imaginary radiation, chemical or biological danger, fear, constant fear of exposure to adverse chemical factors. Of course, such concerns should not be inherent in our military personnel. This is excluded.
We train specialists at the Military Academy of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection in Kostroma. He graduates from more than 200 lieutenants a year. They are commanders of radiation, chemical and biological protection units in various types and branches of the armed forces, engineers. We are recruiting a dozen girls to study technical fields.
– Experience from local wars and military conflicts, including Syrian, has shown extraordinary demand for flamethrower units. They are needed when the use of other means of destruction is ineffective or impractical.
They are used to fire on the enemy in the most difficult areas, where increased firepower is required and the outcome of the battle depends on the development of success.
In general, the use of flamethrower units in combat formations of troops is diverse, from motorized rifle units to naval and airborne units.
There are heavy flamethrower units. They provide fire support to infantry and tanks, defeat the enemy's manpower from open and closed firing positions, in various types of offensive and defensive battles, and also decommission lightly armored vehicles and vehicles.
During the strategic exercise Zapad-2021 this year, for the first time, they tried a new way of using mobile groups of heavy flamethrower systems TOS-1A and engineering reconnaissance and fire complex “Agriculture” to cause fire damage to the advancing “enemy”.
– The task of remote contactless destruction of the enemy determines the need to hit fire on its objects at long distances.
High-energy incendiary compositions have been developed for RPO-A and RPO PDM-A jet infantry flamethrowers. Improved ammunition design schemes. Flamethrower-incendiary means adopted in recent years allow flamethrower subunits to significantly increase their contribution to the defeat of the enemy, increase the combat capabilities of units.
– Development is progressing by reducing range and unifying protective products, improving their efficiency and quality, ensuring compatibility with sets of individual warriors “Warrior”, extended continuous wear and reduced weight.
A combined PMK-4 gas filter mask, a set of personal skin protection products of the SIZK-IT insulation type and a filter type – OFZK – were developed and adopted to supply the army. They are better combined with individual combat equipment “Ratnik”, “Ratnik-2” and a gas mask with combined weapons PMK-4.
The SIZK-IT set provides repairers with longer protection and has improved physiological and hygienic indicators. The OFZK set was developed to replace the protective filter clothing of the OZK-F “Nerekhta” suit. Thanks to the use of new generation filter and sorption materials, the kit provides improved protective properties and improved physiological and hygienic properties.
– This is a high level of sample unification. The ergonomic properties of the protective equipment are improved. Their weight and dimensions will be reduced. They must be integrated with newly developed weapons and weapon systems.
The development of personal protective equipment for respiratory organs – gas masks, respirators – also has its trends. These include improving the gas mask expiration date indicators or introducing a life indicator into the gas mask filter box. Work is underway to reduce the weight and dimensions of protective equipment, increase resources and use time.
Nonwoven polymeric materials with selectively permeable membranes are being introduced into the design of new personal protective equipment for the skin. Protective materials with specified properties are created for them on the basis of new polymers, textiles, elastomers, ceramics and composites. This is nanotechnology, we are talking about grains smaller than 100 nanometers.
New catalysts for the decomposition of toxic chemicals in filter media are being developed. Permeable and semi-permeable protective materials acquire higher fire-resistant and durable properties.
Materials with improved physiological, hygienic and protective properties are developed for operation in various climatic conditions. Camouflage properties are improved to reduce visibility on the battlefield, thanks to surface treatment and textile applications.
– Here we cooperate with the Ministry of Health Roszdravnadzor and Rospotrebnadzor. Work is underway on the registration of prophylactic and diagnostic drugs against covid.
For example, a set of real-time coronavirus ribonucleic acid (RNA) detection reagents has been developed using isothermal loop amplification. It allows to detect coronavirus in bioassays within 30 minutes.
This month, development was completed and a certificate for non-specific prevention of a new coronavirus infection was received. It is a dietary supplement.