ERDC demos life-saving technologies

Published Dec. 9, 2011

Dec. 9, 2011

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FORT POLK, La. —  In what is one of the more sobering statistics in recent U.S. history, current numbers indicate more than 6,000 American Soldiers have been killed in combat during deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in the 10 years since Sept. 11, and approximately 50,000 have been wounded. In an effort to offset these staggering losses, ERDC's survivability researchers are continually developing and tweaking protective technologies with a single goal in mind—saving lives.

A recent live-fire demonstration, held at Fort Polk, La., tested rapidly deployable protective structures for deployed troops, focusing specifically on small Combat Outposts (COP) of 300 personnel or less. Researchers were hoping to increase protection without increasing the logistics and necessary equipment needed to deploy the protection.

They succeeded.

"This event demonstrated performance in an operational environment," said Nick Boone, a research mechanical engineer in GSL's Survivability Engineering Branch. "Each technology was employed in a manner that might be experienced in a Combat Outpost scenario. The physical COP site really helped solidify everyone's understanding of how these technologies would be used in remote deployed areas.

"In the past, demos only emphasized the experimental performance of new technologies," continued Boone. "It is equally important to demonstrate the extreme conditions where new technologies might be used—it helps everyone understand the true problems that need to be solved."

COPs have limited manpower and logistics resources, and must be rapidly established in hostile environments while remaining safe, secure and potentially mobile—a tall order that is not being filled by the current primary means of protection, including the use of soil berms, earthen revetments, concrete barriers, heavy timber and sandbags. The ERDC technologies tested allow Soldiers to achieve equal, and in many cases superior, protection in mere hours versus the several weeks it can traditionally take to deploy full protection. All components can be easily airlifted to remote locations and set up with minimal effort and manual labor.

By detonating explosive charges in close proximity to each of the technologies during the Fort Polk demonstration, researchers were able to simulate the ability of the protective measures to withstand actual combat conditions. Some of the experiments, such as a simulated vehicle bomb along a perimeter wall, used bare charges to imitate ideal blast loading conditions. Others used threat mortars and rockets, emulating a complex attack on the outpost. To emphasize the focus of the protective technologies, plywood dummies were also installed through the outpost to simulate troops.

"The goal is to save Soldiers' lives," said Boone. "Many of the protective structures were occupied by human simulates to provide a reference for what might happen to anyone within that vicinity during the attack. In addition, several of the simulates were installed so they were fully exposed to weapon fragmentation and blast characteristics. This provides a good basis for comparison when analyzing structure performance."

The event, an Office of the Secretary of Defense-led effort, was the first Deployable Force Protection (DFP) Science and Technology (S&T) initiative program-level demonstration. ERDC is the lead organization for the initiative, but the Army, Air Force and Navy all play roles in the effort. Agencies directly involved in the Fort Polk effort in addition to ERDC, were the U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate; U.S. Army Communications—Electronics, Research, Development and Engineering Center; U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center; U.S. Army Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate; Naval Surface Warfare Center; Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command; and Hanscom Air Force Base. S&T players throughout the Department of Defense were invited to attend the event, with hopes of providing an understanding of the needs of Soldiers in theater and the technologies that are available for immediate fielding.

"It is difficult to provide adequate passive protection with limited logistical support, and all the right players have to be on board in order to push a technology from the research phase into the fielding phase," said Boone. "No report can give the same appreciation as witnessing the live event, and I would call the demonstration a huge success."

Attendees, particularly those in uniform, agreed with him.

"I believe this technology is very useful and has great potential to protect Soldiers downrange in Afghanistan and in future operations," said Capt. Ben Murray, currently assigned to GSL's Technical Director's Office. "The best thing about some of these systems, I believe, is their modularity. They're able to adapt to whatever the Soldiers need, be it for protecting a COP perimeter or for overhead protection around their command post or for a mortar pit or a guard tower... whatever the need is, you can meet it.

"I would be willing to use this in theater," said Murray.

"I'm not big on foolishly spending money, but I don't think spending money on this would be foolish," added Staff Sgt. William Dimonde from the Maneuver Center of Excellence. "Troop safety is the number one priority. When I go over there, that's what I'm worried about: coming home. So if it can go over there and withstand it, we have to have it."

Specific technologies tested include variations of the Modular Protective System (MPS), a combination of a lightweight space frame and composite armor panels used to construct perimeter walls, tactical operations centers, elevated guard towers and a protected mortar pit, and its corresponding Overhead Cover (OHC). Also tested were expedient soil-filled barriers, a technology initially developed by a West Point cadet utilizing a collapsible insert, in addition to expedient decoys, radar interference reduction, and the ERDC-developed "bomb-proof wallpaper"—X-Flex.

Leaders within GSL stressed the urgent in-theater need for each of these technologies.

"We've got Soldiers saying 'we need this now,'" said Jerry Ballard, the DFP S&T program manager. "My job is to get this in theater as quick as we can, and at the same time evaluate it properly so the Soldiers have confidence that it will give them the protection they need."

"We were able to go in and show Soldiers the technologies we developed for the Deployable Force Protection Program, and that was the whole goal of the demonstration—taking technologies to a level where they're validated and can rapidly be transitioned into the field," said Pam Kinnebrew, GSL technical director. "The coolest thing about this is that these things are all coming together to save lives of the Soldiers we have deployed right now.

"We're getting great feedback from the Soldiers," added Kinnebrew. "They see this and say 'I really wish I would have had this when I was in Afghanistan.' They're really pushing us to accelerate the pace of the research we're doing and to get this into the field where it can help save lives."

As researchers move toward the fielding phase for many of the technologies, they will continue to enhance them. New and improved versions, with goals including lighter-weight materials and a more rapid set up, expect to be shown as early as March.