Advanced Functional Fabrics of America Supports Military With High-Tech Textiles

Military personnel often face some of the harshest conditions on earth, from blistering desert heat to frigid mountain cold, and the clothing and gear they wear must stand up to, and protect them from, those extreme environments.

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That reality is the driving force behind a partnership between Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which centers on harnessing technological innovation to produce better protective gear.

One of the first of these advancements, the Cold Temperature Arctic Protection System, incorporates multiple layers designed to keep the wearer warm while also remaining lightweight and increasing movement.

“The key is a multilayer approach—the system has five layers to give you the protection you need,” said Sasha Stolyarov, CEO of AFFOA. “Each layer provides a different level of thermal protection.”

Stolyarov explained that the layers work in tandem to block air from reaching the body while still allowing the wearer to have a full range of motion.

“You need your military personnel to be at top performance, and it’s very hard to operate in an extreme cold-temperature environment,” he said. “Warmth is a basic need that you must meet for cognition and everything else. So it’s really critical for any kind of long mission duration to have that level of protection to effectively carry out the mission.”

Another innovation incorporates semiconductor devices into fibers to help monitor the bodily functions of High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) jumpers who free-fall using parachutes. Designed in partnership with end-users from the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, the Physiological Status Monitoring System is a headband sensor system that measures physiological status markers such as temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

Drops in blood oxygen levels—which can happen due to decreased air pressure at higher altitudes—can trigger hypoxia, a potentially fatal condition where body tissues don’t receive enough oxygen.

“You may have the oxygen in your blood start to drop, and you might not know that it’s happening,” Stolyarov said. “You might feel fine and think you can go on a mission when in fact, you shouldn’t because there are physiological indicators that you’re not doing so well. The whole idea is how do you reduce the risk of injury by identifying those physiological markers before someone does something that could result in an injury.”

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The Physiological Status Monitoring System headband transmits data about the wearer’s status to a smart device that has an edge-computing architecture. That device then gives mission commanders or medics real-time data about the readiness of multiple jumpers.

“Commanders are able to have information about each of their troops, giving them the ability to make decisions from a safety perspective,” Stolyarov said. “If you just rely on what someone feels, a lot of times before you have that indicator, there are already other indicators that you can’t really feel, but you can measure and take action.”

Stolyarov said the AAFOA works with the DoD to not only develop these technologies, but also to serve as a conduit between the military and the textiles industry to produce the products.

“We work with the industry to not only build prototypes, but also to create a manufacturing process that can be used to scale these technologies,” he said. “We’re able to rapidly identify capabilities in the U.S. in terms of who knows how to do what and who could actually develop the materials and manufacturing processes to meet the requirements of the DoD.”

Currently, the Cold Temperature Arctic Protection System is being adopted by the army, while the Physiological Status Monitoring System is still in development—and Stolyarov said these innovations could find their way to civilian applications in the future.

“When it comes to cold temperature technologies, there’s a clear dual-use case there for all sorts of outdoor activities, be it skiing or hiking in cold environments,” he said. “In terms of physiological status monitoring, I can see uses in athletics and rehabilitation—being able to monitor your physiological status and use that information to help improve workouts or recovery from an injury.”

The scope of these technologies will continue to grow and offer more benefits for wearers, both on the battlefield and off, Stolyarov believes.

“There’s a whole industry and capabilities on the rise in terms of textiles that you’re wearing that are offering you much more advanced capabilities by the incorporation of sensors,” he said. “We’re starting to enter a space in which there will be a lot more interesting products entering the market.”

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