A new U.S. Army helmet has been developed to keep soldiers cool on the battlefield.
The helmet was first designed in 2013 by the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, according to Discovery News. The developers said that while previous designs were heavy and bulky, the new design is much lighter, more comfortable to wear and uses less power.
The headgear provides chemical and biological protection through a powered air-purifying respirator, giving soldiers a supply of cool, fresh air.
The helmet includes a face mask connected to a blower unit by a hose. Air is sucked by the blower through a filtration system on the side of the mask, which creates air that flows across the wearer's face, Fox News reported.
When the wearer exhales, the valve closes and pushes the filtered air into the eye cavity of the mask. This process keeps outside poison from getting into the mask if there is a break in the seal.
The helmet was tested with a modified version of the Army's M50 joint-service general purpose mask. It was used during running, crawling, combat maneuvers and rifle exercises, Discovery News reported.
Scientists found that the technology performed just as effectively as the model currently used during exercises. Army officials said the helmet was also more comfortable than the current model.
Military officials said researchers at Edgewood will keep improving the designs for new helmets and communication systems, Fox News reported.
The researchers are currently looking for ways to create a mask capable of keeping track of the soldier's physiology in order to sense when to turn the fan on or off.
