The Army has awarded General Dynamics [GD] Armament and Technical Products a $43 million contract option to produce and test Joint Biological Point Detection Systems (JBPDS). The award is a modification to a 2004 contract and brings the total value to date to over $200 million. The option includes field support packages and training for the technology. The JBPDS is a self-contained instrument suite–available in man-portable, shelter-based, ship-based and trailer-mounted variants–that rapidly detects and identifies airborne biological warfare agents.