Air Force Researchers, Gawi Healthcare Develop Lightweight Cooling Tech for Military

The U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and its partner Gawi Healthcare have developed a small, lightweight, passive cooling technology in an effort to reduce heat stress under a cooperative research-and-development agreement.

A July 13 post on the Defense Department science blog says Reginald O’Hara led a USAFSAM exercise physiology research team to develop a cooling sleeve or wrap for the water bladder and a variant with cooling inserts for a specially designed undershirt.

“Military personnel exposed to excessive heat for an extended period of time may experience reductions in both physical and cognitive performance,” said O’Hara.

“Those reductions could severely limit their ability to carry out their duties during intense ground and flight operations.”

Team members field-based tests on the sleeves to see if the product could maintain or reduce the temperature of the water during exposure to heat and humidity and performed tests on the undershirts that showed the shirt inserts helped lower core body temperatures.