Program Manager: Matthew S. Goodman, Ph.D.
 DARPA's
Instant Fire Suppression (IFS) program seeks
to establish the feasibility of a novel flame-suppression
system based on destabilization of flame plasma
with electromagnetic fields, acoustics, ion
injection or other novel approaches. The
key to transformative firefighting approaches
may lie in the fundamental understanding of
fire itself. Fire suppression technologies
have largely focused on disrupting the chemical
reactions involved in combustion. Yet from
a physics point of view, flames are cold plasmas
consisting of mobile electrons and slower positive
ions, and by using physics techniques rather
than combustion chemistry, it may be possible
to extinguish and/or manipulate flames. To
achieve this goal, key scientific breakthroughs
are needed to understand and quantify the interaction
of electromagnetic and acoustic waves with
the plasma in a flame. IFS research results
will be used to determine the scalability of
potential techniques, and if scaling is achievable,
the program will design and construct a prototype
fire suppression system for Class A and B fires
inside of a ship or HUMVEE-sized compartment.
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