An aerospace company in Huntsville is teaming up with medical experts to make potentially life-saving equipment.

During this coronavirus pandemic, employees here at Cubic GATR Technologies decided to take the technology they already have and put it toward something they’ve never had to use before. Something that could save lives here locally.

This is not normally what these GATR employees would be working on.

It's a ventilator, to be used as a backup if local hospitals should need them.

"We could use our inflation system that’s on our inflatable satellite communication terminals to repurpose those for a ventilator and with the upcoming crisis of COVID-19 we decided, hey if it’s something we can do for our community, let’s give it a shot," said Roark McDonald, Vice President and General Manager of GATR Technologies.

So in the last 14 days, this team of employees have been hard at work coming up with this device.

"We’re not there yet. We still have a little bit more development to go, we still have have tests we have to conduct and pass, but we’re well on our way," said McDonald.

The company partnered with local medical professionals, including those at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and local hospitals.

"As an aerospace defense company we don’t have experience in medical devices so the team has reached out to the community and we’ve had a lot of support from the medical professionals around the community to help us on our learning curve and help us develop the product," said McDonald.

A product they hope can one day make a difference in the community.

"Community, innovation and teamwork coming together to repurpose a DOD aerospace product into a medical device that we can use to save lives today," said McDonald.

Right now, the company says its plan is to make a number of these backup ventilators and give them to local hospitals in the area, should they need them.

They devices is not ready yet, but should be able to pass regulations soon.