United States M17 Respirator

When Australia entered the Vietnam war, the respirators of the Second World War were still in use with the Australian Army. Obviously, these said respirators, being the Mk.IV and Mk.V General Service Respirators as well as in exceptionally rare cases the Australian Light Anti-Gas Respirator, were severely outdated at the time, and thus, Australia needed to find a new respirator to defend it's troops.

Australia decided to go with the M17 line of respirators manufactured by the United States, starting out with the ABC-M17 (Atomic, Biological, Chemical), then moving to both the M17A1 and M17A2 respirators when they were developed. Initially, due to resource restraints with the Australian Army, only Australian "Tunnel Rats" would be issued with M17s, however as time progressed it became the standardised mask for use with the ADF.

Designed to be a lightweight mask, the M17 got rid of the concept of using 40mm or 60mm removable filters, instead opting for "porkchop" style filters which were contained inside of the mask. This meant that the filters could not be swapped out when the respirator was in use.

When total protection from CBRN agents was needed, the M17 was paired with a modified version of the Charcoal Impregnated British Mk.3 NBC/CBRN suit. The main modification being the removal of the hood from the suit so that it could be used with the ABC-M6A2 Field Protective Mask Hood which was issued with the M17. 

The M17 series of respirators saw use with the ADF up until it was replaced by the S10, later converted into the ADF-10, in the late 80s and early 90s. Additionally, the head harness from the M17 was salvaged from the mask in order to replace the rubber head harness that came with S10, turning it into the ADF-10. 

Special thanks to Mark Bixley for providing some of the images on this page