The State Department unveiled a first-of-its-kind medevac biocontainment system created for highly contagious pathogens.

The public-private system is owned and operated by the State Department to roll on and off planes to help evacuate and securely transport health workers on the front lines fighting Ebola and future epidemics abroad.

The biocontainment unit was displayed, above, aboard a C-17 military transport plane at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Ga.

The next-generation system designed by MRIGlobal was created with a $5 million dollar private-public partnership grant between Paul G. Allen and the State Department to address the limited access available to extract health workers and provide medical treatment should they fall ill during an epidemic.

The system looks similar to freight containers on the outside, but is built to fit in multiple aircraft to contain highly contagious pathogens and can be quickly mobilized during disease outbreaks anywhere in the world.