BlastGard International and BlastWrap

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how preventing or lessening senseless carnage caused by terrorism is the mission of a small Florida-based hi-tech start-up company called BlastGard International. It looks at how it produces and markets a bubble wrap-like material that, when lining the inside of a garbage can, will absorb and dissipate a blast from a backpack-size-bomb hidden there in less than one thousandth of a second. Called BlastWrap, the material is actually a patchwork of 2.75-inch compartments stuffed with numerous foamy pellets commonly found in potting soil.

From the Paper:

"For a start-up company marketing a first-in-breed new technology, though, what matters more than an array of potential market segments is finding an immediate set of customers. For BlastGuard International, the most promising candidate in this respect is the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). It allocates almost $100 million annually in the Technical Support Working Group which brainstorms new ideas that might be useful in the war on terrorism. To date, DoD has gone on to invest in such TSWG-sourced ideas as blast-resistant building designs, countermeasures against explosives and weapons of mass destruction, personal-protection equipment, and equipment for military and civilian emergency-response teams for chemical incidents. ("DOD Seeks Technology")"

Sample of Sources Used:

• AGENCY GROUP 09. "DOD SEEKS TECHNOLOGY FOR ANTI-TERRORISM FIGHT." FDCH Regulatory Intelligence Database . Business Source Premier. 19 February 2007. http://search. ebscohost.com.
• "BOMB-PROOF BUBBLE WRAP." Popular Science 267.6 (2005): 94. Academic Search Premier. 17 February 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.
• "Bremer Joins Board of BlastGard." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition 248.116 (2006): B11. Academic Search Premier. 17 February 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.
• Carafano, James, Czerwinski, Jonah & Weitz, Richard. "Homeland Security Technology, Global Partnerships, and Winning the Long War." Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1977. (2006). http:// www.heritage.org/research/ homelanddefense/bg1977.cfm.
• Karlin, Susan. "Get Smart." Forbes. December 12, 2005: 81.

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