ACCES® (Attenuating Custom Communications Earpiece System) products are unique in the world and are currently made exclusively by Westone. Westone Laboratories partnered with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to research, design, build and test communications earplugs with the goal of improving hearing protection and communications for military pilots and ground crews.
The primary benefit of ACCES® is it offers greatly improved speech intelligibility in noisy environments. Military aviation personnel are exposed to hazardous acoustic noise that degrades hearing and communications. The F-22, and legacy Air Force and Navy fighter aircraft, generate up to 150 decibels. Current hearing protection is inadequate. Personnel wearing current protection are often overexposed in seconds or minutes.