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  • August

    The research focuses on using two European moth species as biological control agents. The moths bore into the grass stems, weakening them. Pictured here is stem that was cut open to reveal residues that were left behind by the moth.

    ERDC invasive grass management research published in “Biological Control”

    ERDC Environmental Laboratory research on managing phragmites australis, an invasive wetland grass, was published in the international journal “Biological Control,” a peer-reviewed scientific journal that focuses on using living natural enemies and agents to manage and mitigate pests, plant diseases and weeds.
  • ERDC's Environmental Laboratory (EL) is assisting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New Orleans District and Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to reconnect Louisiana's Maurepas Swamp with the Mississippi River improving the swamp's ecosystem . (USACE photo by Nathan Beane)

    ERDC-EL researchers join USACE New Orleans District-led Maurepas Swamp Project

    A team of experts from ERDC-EL are supporting the New Orleans District in their River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp Project, an initiative that will divert freshwater from the Mississippi River back into the swamp through a 5.5-mile controlled-flow diversion and extend the swamp’s lifespan and habitat, providing benefit to approximately 45,000 acres within the swamp. The project aims to improve the cypress-tupelo swamp’s health by adding vital nutrients and flushing stagnant, low-oxygen water.

  • July

    Dr. David Moore, senior scientist for environmental sciences, discusses the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory competencies, highlighting high-impact pilot projects directly supporting Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS), Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and EPA Support (Superfund/Brownfields). The presentation was part of a workshop focusing on accelerating mission delivery, maximizing installation resilience and strengthening long-term operational readiness across the three critical portfolios.

    Collaboration key to accelerating mission delivery across USACE environmental portfolios

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is helping transform how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) approaches environmental cleanup. By delivering advanced science, technology, and engineering solutions, ERDC is actively working to accelerate remediation, reduce risk, and return contaminated sites to productive use.
  • Researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center deploy a mobile trailer equip with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lock Operations Management Application (LOMA) capabilities to help strengthen gaps in broadcast coverage and allow critical messages to be transmitted to vessel traffic in Hickman, Kentucky.

    ERDC researchers use mobile trailers to expand critical messaging along inland waterways

    Low water, shoaling or missing buoys can cause hazardous conditions along our nation’s waterways, putting ships and crews at risk. Even the smallest disruptions in navigation can have catastrophic consequences for supply chains and the movement of essential goods across the country, impacting the economy. To help mitigate these hazards and strengthen gaps in broadcast coverage, researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) are using deployable mobile trailers to ensure that critical messages can be transmitted to vessel traffic.
  • Picture of some 3D printer Oyster Reefs

    ERDC, USACE Mobile District deploy innovative 3D-printed oyster reefs in Mobile Bay

    Maintaining the nation’s waterways requires removal of millions of cubic yards of sediment to keep navigation channels safe and reliable. A team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is advancing a different way of thinking about material: rather than treating dredged sediment solely as something to manage, how it can it be used as an engineering resource to strengthen coastal systems? ERDC’s Environmental Laboratory, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Mobile District and regional partners are evaluating whether dredged sediment can be transformed into 3D-printed structures that provide oyster habitat, improve shoreline resilience and expand beneficial use opportunities.
  • U.S. Navy Sailors with range control patrol Browns Island and the surrounding waters on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, May 14, 2026.

    ERDC researchers granted patent for novel underwater UXO blast shield invention

    Military weapons, ammunition, equipment, and materials, collectively known as munitions of war, lie at the bottom of rivers, lakes, and oceans across the country. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers works to safely locate and remove the munitions, preventing aquatic and human environmental hazards. Two U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) engineers recently developed a patented technology that could significantly improve how those underwater munitions are detected and recovered.

  • June

    Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory and Dartmouth College are using drones and electromagnetic induction to find and identify unexploded ordnance. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    CRREL working to keep ‘people out of harm’s way’ by using drones to find and identify unexploded ordnance

    A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and Dartmouth College is pioneering a new way to keep humans out of harm’s way by using drones to find and identify unexploded ordnance.

  • May

    View of the railway system at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

    From Apollo to Artemis: ERDC’s enduring role in space exploration

    It has been more than 50 years since Neil Armstrong famously declared, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” as he became the first man to step onto the surface of the Moon. Since then, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has helped enable the next generation of space exploration.
  • Severl energy panels setup for a military exercise

    ERDC, LEMA Power the Fight During FLEX 2026

    As unmanned surface vessels carved through the waters off Key West, Florida, and autonomous aerial systems scanned the horizon for illicit trafficking targets, a quieter but equally critical mission was unfolding behind the scenes at U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. Fourth Fleet’s Fleet Experimentation (FLEX) 2026 exercise. Inside a network of command trailers operating advanced unmanned systems, researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL) and industry partner LEMA were proving that the future of expeditionary operations depends not only on autonomous platforms and artificial intelligence, but also on resilient, unmanned energy systems capable of providing uninterrupted power in austere environments.
  • A graphic rendering of the Thermochemical Energy Storage charging and discharging sequences.

    ERDC, Cache Energy advance long-duration energy storage for Army installations

    Researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL) are advancing a next-generation energy storage capability designed to strengthen installation resilience during extended power disruptions.
  • Soldiers walking in the woods.

    ERDC, U.S. Forest Service make historic agreement to accelerate forest capabilities

    Thanks to a historic agreement between the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and the U.S. Forest Service, a foundational dataset has been created to bolster the nation’s forests.

  • April

    An illustration of a building design

    From Lab to River: ERDC is removing roadblocks to infrastructure modernization

    America’s locks and dams are on borrowed time, with many operating well beyond their life expectancy. The economic risk of a single failure has forced waterway managers to rely on long-standing technologies and designs, rather than adopting more modern, innovative components. To help reduce the risk and provide assurance to those managing and operating these structures, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center is designing a first-of-its-kind model to test, validate and accelerate the deployment of new infrastructure designs and critical components.
  • The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development and Select Engineering Services project team standing with the Mobile Insulation System for Energy Reduction (MISER) system at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. (Photo credit: David Shields, Select Engineering Service)

    ERDC Advances Transformational Arctic Sustainment Technology for Warfighters

    As the U.S. Army increases its operational focus in the Arctic, researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) are delivering a proven solution for one of the region’s toughest challenges — sustaining Soldiers in extreme cold weather.
  • Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and technicians from industry partner, LEMA, install a system of four LEMA photovoltaic panels at the ERDC Forward Operating Base Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois.

    ERDC, LEMA Drive Innovation in Unmanned Power Capabilities

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL), in partnership with long-time industry collaborator LEMA, has reached two major milestones in the development of next-generation unmanned, resilient power generation systems designed to support military operations in austere and contested environments.

  • February

    Representatives from ERDC’s Environmental Lab traveled to USAG Bavaria-Garmisch in Germany to conduct water assessments focusing on improving water quality and resilience.

    ERDC researchers conduct water assessment at USAG Bavaria-Garmisch in Germany

    Ensuring safe, reliable drinking water is critical to protecting Soldier health and maintaining mission readiness at U.S. military facilities worldwide. To support that objective, three researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL) recently traveled to a U.S. military base in Germany to evaluate water quality, resilience and treatment needs.

  • December

    A barge floating in the river.

    Autonomous barge kits improve logistical capabilities for joint forces

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has partnered with the U.S. Transportation Command to develop Scalable Autonomous Modular Propulsion kits for coastal and riverine Operational Logistics, or SAMPOL.

  • September

    CRREL’s Constantine Coclin (left) and Dr. Meghan Quinn prepare to deploy DAS-Ice on Storrs Pond in Hanover, New Hampshire.

    CRREL team pioneers fiber-optic technology to measure ice thickness

    A team of scientists at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire, is putting fiber-optic cable to a much more unconventional use: determining the thickness – and therefore safety – of freshwater ice.

  • August

    Archaeologists from ERDC's Construction Engineering Research Laboratory use specialized equipment during a geophysical survey to collect data and determine if the site was a previous burial location.

    CERL archaeologists conduct geophysical survey to identify potential burial sites

    Archaeologists from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) are working on a project centered on surveying and identifying known and unknown burial sites. In June, CERL archaeologists recently conducted a non-invasive geophysical survey to identify potential locations for ancestors' burial in the upper Wabash Region in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District.
  • Tanner Jernigan is a coastal engineer at ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory. On March 28, he helped rescue three children from rough waves and surf near a beach on Tybee Island, Georgia. The wakes were created by a large vessel in the Port of Savannah shipping channel located just north of the island.

    Coastal engineer rescues children caught in large vessel wakes

    In March, Tanner Jernigan was supporting an ongoing research project on Tybee Island, Georgia, when the unthinkable happened and Jernigan jumped in to rescue the lives of three children. Jernigan, a coastal research engineer with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), works at the ERDC Field Research Facility, part of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory.

  • May

    Ashley Gonzalez (USACE Jacksonville) and Megan Hamersky (Kansas Biological Survey) prepare to deploy a mooring buoy for an ERDC monitoring initiative.

    ERDC enhances HAB detections through interactive, real-time dashboard

    A team from the the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is making strides to combat harmful algal blooms (HABs) through its innovative Depth Resolved Algal Bloom Mapping (DRABM) initiative. By creating an interactive, real-time dashboard that visualizes subsurface water quality data, ERDC is transforming how HABs are detected and managed, helping to protect public health, support local economies and enhance flood risk management operations.