Top Pentagon Doctor Lauds Overseas Labs

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2011 – The Defense Department’s overseas medical research laboratories will play a key role in ensuring the readiness of deployed U.S. military forces well into the future, while also contributing to global health and U.S. partnership-building around the world, the Pentagon’s senior health affairs advisor said.

Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, called the overseas Army and Navy labs that have helped protect deployed service members for the past 60 years -- and civilians around the world as well -- “a national investment and a national treasure.”

Woodson addressed a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum June 28 as its Global Health Policy Center released a new report, “The Defense Department’s Enduring Contributions to Global Health -- The Future of the U.S. Army and Navy Overseas Medical Research Laboratories.”

These labs include the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit in Nairobi, Kenya; the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok; the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit 3 in Cairo; NAMRU-6 in Lima, Peru; and NAMRU-2 Pacific, temporarily headquartered at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

A sixth laboratory, U.S. Army Medical Research Unit Europe, in Heidelberg, Germany, conducts psycho-social research; and the precursor to a new U.S. Army laboratory, the Central Public Health Reference Library, opened in March in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Woodson echoed the CSIS report’s finding that the laboratories, while “exceptional” in their contribution to military readiness as well as scientific research and global health, are “surprisingly under-recognized and undervalued” outside the research community.

“For relatively little dollars, we get a huge benefit, not only in terms of protecting the citizenry of this nation,” he said. “But the added value to the world is just incredible.”

The CSIS report noted some of the labs’ contributions: the first vaccine for Japanese encephalitis virus; the first isolation of the Rift Valley Fever virus; the first identification of new strains of dengue fever in Peru; the demonstrated efficacy of several drugs to treat and prevent malaria; and in Thailand, the first successful HIV/AIDS vaccine trial, among them.

Woodson cited the research laboratories’ long history of addressing disease that rendered troops ineffective, with decades of work that helped develop a robust inventory of vaccines and therapeutics.

These and other efforts have helped elevate the state of military medicine to its highest levels ever, particularly during the last decade. “We have the lowest rate of disease and nonbattle injury ever witnessed in the history of warfare,” Woodson said. “That success started in our research laboratories.”

The laboratories’ achievements have extended far beyond the military, helping to reduce human suffering and promoting stability around the world, Woodson said.

“Building healthy populations is a worthy strategic engagement approach,” he said. “In fact, utilizing medicine and building healthy populations is a way of preserving the peace so we don’t have to get into these kinetic wars” and can focus on building stable societies.

Woodson emphasized the importance of partnerships in advances made to date and called for closer collaboration in the future: between government agencies, government, academia and the private sector, and the world health community.

He paid tribute to the professionals who work largely behind the scenes to advance the labs’ work.

“Make no mistake: their contributions and expertise are really valued, and they know that their work matters,” Woodson said. “But their work is done without fanfare and with real modesty and with a deep respect for the science and data and discipline of their art and their practice.”

Woodson emphasized the importance of strategic communication that helps build broader understanding and appreciation for the laboratories’ contributions to global health. This will be particularly important during times of budget constraints, when cost-sharing will become increasingly important, he said.

The laboratories have roots dating back to the 19th century, the CSIS report noted. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which oversees the Army’s international network of laboratories, traces its institutional heritage to the Army Medical School, founded in 1893 by U.S. Army Surgeon General Brig. Gen. George Miller Sternberg.

Sternberg established the Army’s first two overseas laboratories in Cuba and the Philippines to investigate outbreaks of typhoid fever and yellow fever that were undermining U.S. military efforts during the Spanish-American War.

The Navy established its first domestic naval medical laboratory in 1953 on the grounds of the Brooklyn Naval Hospital in 1983.

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Lynn Speaks on Advanced Manufacturing at Carnegie Mellon

By Karen Parrish

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2011 – Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III gave the defense perspective on advanced manufacturing yesterday while attending the launch of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

President Barack Obama created the partnership to bring together industry, universities and the federal government to invest in the emerging technologies that, according to a White House statement, will “create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance our global competitiveness.”

The president’s plan, which leverages existing programs and proposals, will invest more than $500 million to jumpstart this effort, bringing together leading universities and companies to invent, deploy and scale these cutting-edge technologies.

In his remarks at the event, Lynn said the history of advanced manufacturing in the Defense Department can be told through three individuals: the inventor Eli Whitney, former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, and Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Before Whitney had success with the cotton gin, the deputy secretary said, he went to Congress in 1801 with a proposal to build muskets with interchangeable parts.

Whitney took 10 muskets to Congress, disassembled them, and threw all of the parts in a pile, Lynn said.

“And then he reassembled them, with different parts constituting each new musket,” he added, “something that had never before been done. Congress was impressed.

“Eventually, the Department of the Army issued a contract for 10,000 new muskets to be built using this method,” he continued. “It was one of the first widespread uses of standardized parts, and it contributed enormously to the advance of manufacturing in the United States.”

In 1984, Augustine published a book called "Augustine's Laws," which Lynn said is well known in defense circles.

One of the laws charted the cost increase in high-performance jets and tactical aircraft against the increase in the defense budget, Lynn said, noting the lines crossed in 2054.

“What that meant was that in 2054 we would have to spend the entire defense budget to buy one airplane,” he said. “He observed that we could work this out. The Navy would get it for three days a week, the Air Force for three days, and the Marines would have it on Sundays.”

Costs have continued to rise at roughly the rate Augustine predicted, Lynn said, noting much of the reason is the time it takes to design and approve new equipment.

“The time horizon of design and development is increasing at a similar pace,” he said, “which brings us to Regina Dugan, the current director of DARPA.”

Under Dugan’s leadership, DARPA has focused on an advanced manufacturing effort that uses integrated circuits manufacturing as a model for open design and configurable foundries, Lynn said, leading to the ability to crowd-source design.

“Altogether, we think this can significantly speed up the manufacturing timeline -- on the order of dividing it by a factor of five,” the deputy secretary said. “That is to say we could do it five times as fast, which could yield enormous cost-savings.”

Lynn said the pilot of a vehicle DARPA built in less than 90 days was on display at yesterday’s event.

“This is a pilot, not yet a complete vehicle,” he said. “But for DOD, this pilot has the ability to undo Augustine's law and yield advances in manufacturing equivalent to what Eli Whitney ushered in during the early 19th century.”

The department will continue to work as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, Lynn said, to “develop this approach to manufacturing for DOD and to understand its broader implications for U.S. manufacturing.”

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CBP Unmanned Aircraft System Providing Imagery Above Mississippi

Washington — U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Air and Marine (OAM) began providing imagery Monday to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) along the Mississippi River basin in support of flood response efforts.

The remotely piloted Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is providing streaming video and Synthetic Apeture Radar (SAR) mapping and change analysis of areas affected by flooding, such as levee integrity along the Mississippi River, all the way to Memphis, Tenn.

The CBP MQ-9 Predator B Unmanned Aircraft is used to fly a variety of missions, including disaster relief support along the Mississippi River Valley. Pilots in Grand Forks, N.D. and Corpus Christi, Texas are providing images to the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help determine the integrity of the levees along the Mississippi River. 

The Predator B is launching from the National Air Security Operations Center-Corpus Christi (NASOC-CC) and then flown by pilots in North Dakota.

“This is the farthest we have operated into the interior of the United States,” said Director of Air Operations NASOC-GF, John Priddy. “This year alone, we have flown over 124 hours from Grand Forks in support of emergency responders in the national air space, and provided thousands of images to law enforcement and other agencies to help state and local governments respond appropriately.”

The real-time video stream, known as Big Pipe, is a video distribution system that CBP provides to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies so that responders have access to real-time video and still imagery. The images can be viewed anywhere there is an internet connection, including smart-phones.

The CBP UAS program expanded to the Northern Border in early December 2008 and provides reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, tracking and acquisition capabilities in areas that are difficult to access or otherwise considered too high-risk for manned aircraft or CBP personnel on the ground. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the UAS flew over 500 hours in support of law enforcement and emergency responders.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

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First Mobile MRI Systems to be Sent to Afghanistan Theater

From Navy Medicine Public Affairs

FORT DETRICK, Md. (NNS) -- Naval Medical Logistics Command (NMLC) announced the award of a contract for two mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems to Philips Healthcare June 7, to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury of wounded warriors in Afghanistan.

The Navy has been working closely with the Army and Air Force to field an unprecedented MRI capability for deployed forces as part of the overall comprehensive approach to diagnosing and treating concussive injuries.

The procurement of the MRI systems has been a joint initiative between NMLC's technical and operational partners including: Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, U.S. Army Medical Material Agency, Chief of Mobility Command, the Veterans Administration, and the Army's Rapid Equipping Force.

While there is no clinical requirement for MRI systems in battlefield trauma care, they will be informative and may lead to cutting-edge discoveries in the diagnosis, treatment and enhanced follow-up care for wounded personnel with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI).

"The acquisition of an MRI system for use in a combat theater is something new and provides some interesting challenges but it's amazing to see those challenges being overcome so quickly," said James B. Poindexter, commanding officer of NMLC. "This is a complex and unprecedented acquisition issue and our team is working hard to field this equipment as soon as possible while ensuring it will do the job we intend it to do, taking care of our men and women in uniform close to the battlefield."

According to Poindexter, the MRI systems destined for Afghanistan are unlike anything commercially available. The units need to be self-contained, requiring that they be designed from the ground up to account for the many unique and challenging working environments that will be encountered in combat theater such as vast temperature differences, fine blowing sand and power issues. They must also meet size and weight requirements to be capable of being airlifted into theater.

"We are taking prudent measures to ensure successful deployment of this important equipment by late summer," said Poindexter. "We continue to aggressively address every element involved including engineering, logistical and technical issues."

The contract to build the MRI systems was awarded to Philips after a competitive, best value acquisition process.

"We are honored to help improve access to care by bringing advanced medical technologies to Afghanistan as part of our longstanding efforts to support soldiers and veterans," said Joe Robinson, senior vice president, Government and Enterprise Solutions, Philips Healthcare.

NMLC is the center of logistics expertise for Navy Medicine, designing, executing and administering individualized state-of-the-art solutions to meet customer's medical material and healthcare needs. Headquartered at Fort Detrick, Md., NMLC supports the U.S. Navy with acquisition and logistics systems training, healthcare services strategies, operational forces support, medical equipment and logistics solutions, acquisition management, deployable platforms and eye wear fabrication. NMLC has responsibility as technical manager of the Navy's Direct Healthcare Services Contracting Program and has formal agreements with the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard to provide medical logistics and materiel management information and medical mobilization planning assistance.

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NASA Honors Human Spaceflight Achievements At Kennedy Center Concert

Katherine Trinidad                               

Headquarters, Washington                               

WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting the general public and journalists to a special concert at 7 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 25, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington to honor American achievements in human spaceflight. The event, “Human Spaceflight: the Kennedy Legacy” is a musical celebration on the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s speech to Congress when he challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth.

The one-hour concert will feature the Space Philharmonic under the baton of celebrity conductor Emil de Cou. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, astronauts and special, surprise guests will participate in the event along with local high school musical groups and the Soldier’s Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band.

A limited number of tickets is available for the general public on a first-come, first-served basis. To attend the free event, please contact NASA Guest Operations at 202-358-1750. Tickets for those who RSVP will be available at NASA's Will Call tables, which will be staffed in front of the Concert Hall (in the Grand Foyer) from 5-6:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Reporters, who would like to cover the event, must contact Katherine Trinidad at 202-358-3749 or katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov by 12 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24.

To see video, audio and a transcript of President Kennedy's 1961 speech and learn about NASA's plans for future human space exploration, visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/kennedy_moon_speech.html.

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MIT-West Point Challenge Yields New Soldier Technologies

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2011 – Every year since 2003, cadets from the U.S. Military Academy and students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have competed to develop technologies that help soldiers and Marines on the battlefield.

This year, six teams took home awards for advances such as slashing the time it takes to set up sand-filled barriers, designing a safer way to airdrop water supplies, harvesting wind energy from a cell-phone-sized generator, and more.

The MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, a research center founded in 2002 with a five-year, $50 million Army research contract, holds the Soldier Design Competition.

The institute is in its second five-year contract, and its mission is to use the power of nanotechnology to save the lives of soldiers and Marines.

Nanotechnology is science on the scale of single atoms and molecules. A nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter; a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.

Nanotechnology offers the potential for making things small and lightweight. And because materials act differently at the nano scale than they do at everyday scales of inches, feet and pounds, engineers potentially can create unprecedented new materials and devices.

“Imagine a bullet-resistant jumpsuit,” the institute’s website says, “no thicker than ordinary spandex that monitors health, eases injuries, communicates automatically and reacts instantly to chemical and biological agents.”

This is the institute’s ultimate goal.

In the meantime, efforts such as the Soldier Design Competition harness the ideas and energies of students and cadets for low-cost, semester-length projects that awardees can commercialize quickly and use to help soldiers.

First prize went to a West Point team that redesigned Hercules Engineering Solutions Consortium, or HESCO, barriers, used by U.S., NATO and other military forces around the world. The redesign saved 60 percent of the time needed to protect against small-arms fire when soldiers have to shovel sand into the barriers by hand.

“The team talked to people in small-arms protection who said you only need a foot of sand in the HESCO barrier to stop gunfire, so you don’t need to fill the whole thing up right away,” John McConville, technology transfer officer for the Army Research Office, told American Forces Press Service.

McConville, assigned to the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, helps students and cadets link up with Army labs and commands to get the technologies into the field.

An MIT team earned second prize for designing a way to drop water supplies -- one large bottle or a pallet of them -- from aircraft and get them down safely and without help from people on the ground.

Their model was the wing-like maple-tree seed. Almost as soon as the seed leaves the tree, its aerodynamic shape causes it to rotate around its own center of mass as it spins slowly to the ground.

“The team made a [leaf-shaped wing] out of cardboard, did some calculations, strapped a little bag of water on it and threw it out their dorm window,” McConville said.

“They have a little video of this, and it comes spinning down really slow,” he said, noting that the team analyzed how heavy a bag could be and how fast it could come down without seriously hurting someone on the ground.

“They determined that if they had up to 500 milliliters of water and they used this device,” McConville added, “it wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

The Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center submitted the problem to the Soldier Design Competition as a humanitarian issue, and McConville said Natick was interested in the design.

For the third prize, an MIT team created a cell-phone-sized device with a lever whose wind-generated vibrations in an electromagnetic field produces electricity. The students, McConville said, “are trying to design it so a soldier can use it to charge a battery.”

Teams also received awards for an augmented reality battlefield smartphone application, a low-cost tactical unmanned aircraft system and a thin-film rechargeable battery in the form of a U.S. flag uniform patch.

Other entries included an advanced adaptable ear-protection system, a soldier sound system that allows vehicle operators to hear important environmental sounds, an exoskeleton, a personal nonlethal distraction device that can be hidden in everyday objects, and a smartphone vibrating-belt system for situational awareness on the battlefield.

Several teams are working with the Army to field their devices, McConville said, and some are patenting their designs in advance of taking them to the commercial market.

“We encourage whatever it takes to commercialize the product and get it to the soldier,” he added.

Even teams whose entries don’t receive awards contribute to the mission, the technology transfer officer noted. “They’re all out there trying to help the soldier,” he said. “There really are no losers.”

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HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 2011: The Military’s role in Combating HIV

By Carla Voorhees

Col. Nelson L. Michael, M.D., Ph.D is the Director, Division of Retrovirology, at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), an international HIV vaccine research program that successfully integrates HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment.

Col. Nelson L. Michael, M.D., Ph.D, Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program

Today, May 18, marks HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. It has now been 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported and more than 33 million people are living with the disease worldwide. With an average age of around 28 years old, many of our service members do not know a world without AIDS.

The U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has been working to combat HIV for more than 25 years. We aim to develop a globally-effective HIV vaccine which, in combination with other proven prevention strategies, would enable us not only to protect our troops from HIV, but could also help curb the global pandemic.

MHRP supports HIV prevention and treatment in civilian and military communities. Shown here, President Kikwete of Tanzania attends the 2010 International Military HIV/AIDS Conference, where he offered “a very special thanks to the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research for the good leadership in HIV research and treatment efforts globally. “The U.S. Military has an impressive history of infectious disease research and vaccine development. These research efforts, which include influenza, malaria, hepatitis and dengue, are critical to protecting our troops who are deployed globally. At the same time, these efforts translate into improved global health while helping to sustain progress and stability in many parts of the world.

On HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, MHRP sites promote the need for an effective HIV vaccine. Here, some Kenyan children show their support.

Although both parents are HIV positive, the children remain HIV free. MHRP provides services through PEPFAR in each of the communities in which they conduct research. This family is supported by the Walter Reed Project-Kenya through PEPFAR.

When I travel to East Africa, where our program conducts clinical studies and provides care and treatment through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the human impact of HIV is almost overwhelming. HIV strikes most people in the prime of their lives, and can undo decades of social and economic development. The PEPFAR program has saved millions of lives and has had a direct, positive impact on communities. I have met orphans supported by our program, teenagers who learn how to avoid becoming infected, and adults who are alive today because of this initiative. As transformative as the PEPFAR program has been, a preventive vaccine is needed to help us win the long-term battle against HIV.

In 2009, the U.S. Army Surgeon General announced the results of RV144, the first study which showed that an HIV vaccine regimen was safe and 31% effective in lowering the rate of infection in humans. While there is still much work to be done before a vaccine can be deployed, this was a pivotal moment that showed that an HIV vaccine is possible.

Developing a vaccine won’t happen overnight, but we are confidant that recent advances such as RV144 have provided significant scientific momentum needed to help us achieve this goal, perhaps so that the next generation of Service members might know a world without AIDS.

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Flooding From Mississippi River Levee Breach

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers detonated explosives at the Birds Point levee near Wyatt, Missouri, at 10:02 p.m. on May 2, 2011. Water from the intentional breach flooded a 130,000-acre stretch of land. Two more breaches were detonated on May 3 and 5. This image from the Advanced Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft shows the resultant flooding of farmland west of the Mississippi 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the levee breach. On the image, vegetation is displayed in red, bare fields in gray and water in blue. The image covers an area of 30.7 by 39 miles (49.5 by 63 kilometers), and is located near 36.5 degrees north latitude, 89.4 degrees west longitude.

With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of about 50 to 300 feet, or about 15 to 90 meters, ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and, measuring surface heat balance.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

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Army Warfighters Go Digital to Hone Skills

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2011 – With more than 1 million service members on active duty in the United States, the military services, and especially the Army, are running short of a critical commodity -- training grounds.

The problem, intensified by the winding down of two wars, is ratcheting up the interest of Army senior leaders in virtual solutions to real-world constraints.

“We have a lot of soldiers coming home to stations here in the United States, and … we don’t have enough terrain in many of those places to train those soldiers out on live ranges,” Army Col. Anthony D. Krogh told American Forces Press Service.

Krogh is director of the National Simulation Center, part of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

“We just physically can’t do it,” he said. “Fort Lewis is a good example.”

Seven 5,000-person brigades are on the ground at Fort Lewis, now part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the state of Washington , he said. “But here’s the thing -- there’s only enough maneuver space and range for one brigade there at a time,” he added.

That means “our perishable skills as soldiers start to atrophy rather rapidly,” the colonel said. “The only way we can make up for that is to use a synthetic, or virtual, world.”

Krogh says Army command and control systems themselves produce a kind of synthetic environment that has been in use for a long time. Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below, called FBCB2, for example, is a computer-based communication platform for commanders.

Blue Force Tracking is a GPS-enabled system that gives military commanders and forces location information about friendly and hostile forces. Other command-and-control visualization tools let commanders see a three-dimensional battle space and locate units or particular soldiers there, the colonel said.

“It doesn’t look like an avatar,” Krogh said, referring to digital representations of users that populate virtual worlds, “but it is a synthetic environment that’s created because we learn or understand quicker through visualization than anything else.”

The Army also uses simulators of all kinds to train soldiers at different levels, he said, from squad and fire-team leaders and individual soldiers to division and core commanders.

Emerging-technology Army initiatives include a Training and Doctrine Command effort called the Training Brain. This combines capabilities, systems, networks and data into a system that uses modeling, simulation and gaming to replicate real-world events for use in training.

Within about four days the Training Brain system can turn a firefight or a mission into a simulation game, the command’s website says.

“In terms of virtual worlds, our primary focus is on Virtual Battlespace 2, the VBS2 game,” Krogh said. “Gaming initially got a bad rap, because a lot of us had teenagers who were playing Xbox and Nintendo instead of doing their homework. Fortunately, we as leaders grew into this and recognized the value.”

VBS2 has been particularly successful, he said. “Arguably, it’s one of the most successful simulations we’ve ever brought to the force,” he added. “In terms of cost versus usage, it’s a huge success.”

Prague-based Bohemia Interactive Studio developed the gaming and training platform in cooperation with the Marine Corps, the Australian Defense Force and other military customers. It includes a virtual battlefield on which users can operate land, sea and air vehicles. Lots of people can play the game at once in virtual complex urban areas that include buildings that players can destroy, and realistic working weapons.

An after-action-review module, called AAR, records every player action, bullet path, explosion and vehicle movement for a detailed examination of the training mission.

“The most important thing in any of these synthetic environments is to have focused training and the ability to conduct an AAR critique [to understand] what you did right and what you need to work on,” Krogh said.

VBS2 and other initiatives have helped Army senior leadership understand the value of virtual training. Now, Krogh said, the Army is looking to expand the use of virtual worlds, noting that virtual reality will allow an entire brigade to train at one time next year at Fort Bliss, Texas.

“Only one battalion will physically maneuver on real dirt,” he explained. “The rest of the brigade will either be in virtual flight or tank simulators or in their command posts through what we call constructive simulation. So [it will feature] a lot of digital dirt, and a little bit of real dirt.”

Further into the future, Krogh said, the Army is exploring the utility of “massively multiplayer” online gaming technology, like that used in World of Warcraft.

“These have been in the commercial world forever, but we’re looking to leverage that for training our soldiers around the clock, around the world, where they can always jump onto that synthetic environment and train,” he said.

The Army is bringing a new system online that tracks physical training scores, weapons qualification levels and scores for other service skills for individuals in the real world and links them to that person’s avatar in the Army’s virtual environment, he added.

“Picture this,” Krogh said. “If I don’t do well on a PT test, my avatar will not run as fast or move as quick or sustain in combat as long as another soldier who has a better PT score in the real world.”

The same thing will happen for others skills, he said.

“If I am out of tolerance for my weapons training or I have only shot marksman as opposed to sharpshooter or expert, then my PH/PK -- probability of hit/probability of kill -- in the simulation goes way down, because I’m not as highly skilled in the real world.”

Training in the virtual world would mirror training in the real world, the colonel said.

Practice with firearms online “would help you prepare so that when you went to the real range, you’d have had that continuous experience of engaging the targets and putting the weapon into service,” he said.

Soldiers couldn’t do physical training online, but in seeing where they stand in relation to their peers, Krogh said, “a soldier would realize, ‘I’ve got to lose some weight and do better on the PT test, because when I go online my squad is always leaving me behind.’”

Despite progress the Army is just getting started, Krogh said.

“I would say within the next two years we’ll be able to put many of these capabilities in place,” he said.

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Troops Explore Emerging Energy Solutions

By Claire Heininger

Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications – Tactical

ORLANDO, Fla., May 2, 2011 – As the military works to shrink its operational energy footprint, experts in solar power, microgrids and “smart” generators recently took that technology to a crucial jury: the troops.

Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who deal hands-on with battlefield power converged here April 12-15 for the fourth annual Power User Conference held by the Defense Department’s mobile electric power project manager’s office, participating in small-group discussions, attending demonstrations and providing feedback on current and next-generation equipment.

“This is a way to get very deep inside the combat [experience] and understand the issues and concerns that soldiers are going through, because this is of paramount importance for us,” said Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Leonardo Bereton, who oversaw power equipment as part of his duties when deployed to Iraq in 2008 and 2009. “This equipment [was] running through sandstorms and rain and cold and hot weather. … They are so valuable to our fight.”

Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Joe Leija said he connected with experts “for every type of gear” with whom he previously had worked via email from Afghanistan.

“But now, putting a name with a face and being able to ask those hard questions, I think it will help out the Marine Corps,” he said.

Among Leija’s recommendations: minor changes to the Solar Stik, a hybrid energy system consisting of a lightweight tripod with a pair of 50-watt rigid-panel solar arrays, batteries and a military generator. Overall, he said, the system could be a valuable alternative to traditional energy sources for powering items with small loads, such as computers and batteries.

“I think it has potential,” he said. “Environment is going to determine whether it’s usable.”

Harnessing the potential of alternative energies so they meet the demands of a military environment is a major focus for the mobile electric power project manager’s office, which supplies tactical electric power solutions, training and support to the services. The organization also is developing a microgrid to be deployed in Afghanistan later this year composed of four larger generator sets and supporting power distribution equipment. It would intelligently manage the power supply to meet demand, reducing fuel consumption and maintenance costs.

“There’s more interest in operational energy than at any time in the last 40 years or so,” project manager Michael Padden told the more than 270 conference attendees. “What can we do to improve efficiencies on the battlefield? What other equipment can we get out there? How can we take tankers off the battlefields and reduce casualties? The answers are in this room.”

The office’s standardized military generators also are evolving. The next generation, known as the Advanced Medium Mobile Power Sources, or AMMPS, family, is 21 percent more fuel-efficient than current systems while reducing size and weight. While AMMPS fielding is expected to begin later this year, several models were on display at the conference for warfighters to explore.

“I’m impressed with the AMMPS from what I’ve seen so far,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Vince DiLoreto, who used the current Tactical Quiet Generator models while deployed. DiLoreto said the standardization between AMMPS units of different sizes would simplify maintenance, and the extra cooling fans would reduce a condition that impairs diesel engines.

As an “old-school guy,” DiLoreto said, his only concern with the transition is that the newer generators use digital control screens in place of dials. But he acknowledged that a younger generation of warfighters might prefer that.

“It will probably be easier for them to use a computer than it would be a dial,” he said.

Other systems on display included a variety of other small and large power sources, including the Deployable Power Generation and Distribution System, a 30,000-pound trailer-mounted system supplying 840 kilowatts of power to forward operating bases and to natural disaster sites in the United States.

“We respond to floods, ice storms and hurricanes,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Norris of the 249th Engineer Battalion, which relies on the system. “We have generators stationed across the country.”

Nearby, a new 60,000-British-thermal-units-per-hour Improved Environmental Control Unit rapidly cooled the interior of a tent, demonstrating its capability to protect key tactical communications equipment from harsh desert temperatures. The Marine Corps also demonstrated a Humvee with an in-line generator coupled to the transmission that provides 30 kilowatts of exportable power when stationary and 10 kilowatts when on the move.

The demonstrations anchored the conference, which also included presentation of the “Power Professional Awards” to recognize outstanding achievements across the Defense Department. The winners were Marine Corps Sgt. Victoria Wellman, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Timothy Duvall, Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Silvia Stephens, Air Force Staff Sgt. Marcial Grinolds, Army Staff Sgt. Michael Kelly and Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brandon McCoy.

Grinolds won for saving the Defense Department $75,000 in vendor courses by developing a training curriculum for power generation specialists. He said standardized training ensures troops will have “the same level of expertise” to provide continuous support for equipment on the front lines.

“You never know about the power guy,” Grinolds said, “until the power goes out.”

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So, why do you change your oil every 3,000 miles?

By John Ohab

This blog post was shared by the Reliability Information Analysis Center (RIAC).

Because that’s what it says in the owner’s manual. But, how much could you save if you waited until 6,000 miles [provided of course you didn’t damage your engine]? It’s questions like this that RIAC engineers, scientists and subject matter experts (SMEs) are dealing with every day on weapons platforms from tanks, to planes, to helicopters, and even submarines.

RIAC engineers not only study the maintenance requirements in the owner’s manuals, but they also spend hours researching failure rates and explore various data sets related to maintenance events. This is a highly structured and very effective process called Reliability Centered Maintenance.

A Reliability Centered Maintenance analysis starts with detailed systems drawings. From the drawings, every component is analyzed for ways that it could possibly fail and then analyzed to see how severe that failure could be to the system. Next, engineers review the actual field failure data or use one of the databases on failures developed over the past 45 years at RIAC. Then, RIAC engineers look at the maintenance currently performed and analyze whether or not certain activities could be eliminated or reduced. Any activity that’s been identified for elimination or reduction must be explored further to ensure the overall system remains safe and reliable. If the overall system remains safe, there’s an opportunity for cost savings to come into play.

For example, RIAC engineers are currently analyzing the entire fleet of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. These massive vehicles are designed to withstand road-side bombs (Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs). To date, RIAC SMEs have completed analyzing nearly 50 percent of the MRAP vehicle systems. Along the way, they’ve discovered various cost avoidances that over a 10 year period would save more than $6.5 billion! This savings includes nearly 175 million fewer man-hours to maintain the MRAPs. By freeing up 175 million maintenance hours, our men and women in uniform are able to focus their attention on other mission critical tasks, helping to get the job done sooner, while also saving on excessive maintenance costs.

The Reliability Information Analysis Center (RIAC) is one of ten Information Analysis Centers (IACs) established by DOD and managed by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). RIAC is the DOD Center of Excellence responsible for acquiring, archiving, analyzing, synthesizing, and disseminating scientific and technical information related to Reliability, Maintainability, Quality, Supportability, and Interoperability (RMQSI).

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Last Chance to Get 2011 Army Earth Day Posters!

Because of some email glitches (outside of our control), some orders submitted on our Web site were never received and processed. If you are still waiting to receive your poster order, it is likely the order was never received. You may call 210-221-0882 or email cathy.kropp@us.army.mil to submit your order (if you are with a military organization). If you include a FEDEX address, phone number and email (as well as how many posters you need), we will get your order to you as soon as we can (normally in two days). We apologize for the inconvenience. Orders received after Wednesday, April 20, will not arrive by Earth Day. If we run out of posters before we get to your order, we will let you know. You may still download the poster and print it yourself if you'd like http://aec.army.mil/usaec/newsroom/earthday02a.html.

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Green Initiatives Support Energy-Savings Concept

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2011 – Last week’s groundbreaking for a new solar micro grid at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., is the latest example of a military “going green” -– saving environmental resources and taxpayer dollars, too.

The 1-megawatt facility, to become operational later this year, will provide one-third of the power for the nation’s largest Army Reserve training post, and ultimately it will save $1 million in energy costs annually, Addison D. “Tad” Davis IV, command executive officer for U.S. Army Reserve Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., told American Forces Press Service.

Taking advantage of the post’s 292 annual days of sunshine, the facility’s two grids, each stretching about 40 feet by 1,200 feet over an existing parking lot, will shade vehicles below while generating renewable solar energy.

“This is pretty exciting stuff, when you think about the fact that we are able to do this and generate that much energy for this installation,” Davis said.

And if the Army decides to expand the initiative into its second and third phases, it could enable Fort Hunter Liggett to become one of the Defense Department’s first “net-zero energy installations,” meaning it produces as much energy as it uses, he said.

Davis said he’s seen the military make huge strides in energy conservation. A decade ago, as Fort Bragg’s garrison commander, he introduced the Army’s first installation-wide sustainability program.

Costs largely drove that decision. “As the installation commander for the largest populated military installation in the world here at Fort Bragg, I had the checkbook, and I had to pay the energy bill and the water bill every month,” he said.

It didn’t take long to recognize that conserving resources saved money that could be used for infrastructure upgrades and new facilities. “So it was the economics of this that really got me excited about sustainability,” Davis said.

Fort Bragg’s early sustainability programs addressed the broad scope of issues, from how energy, water, wastewater and solid and hazardous waste was managed to how new buildings were constructed. The result, Davis said, was more effective and efficient use of resources, reduced consumption and, as a result, cost savings that could be applied to other projects.

The concept caught on quickly, expanding to more than 30 Army installations, including posts in Germany, Alaska and Hawaii. Now, the Army hopes to take it a step further with net-zero energy, waste and water initiatives. Several pilot programs are expected to be announced during next week’s Earth Day observance.

These sustainability initiatives support what Davis called the Army’s “triple bottom line” that incorporates mission, environment and community.

“Obviously, the mission is most important to us -- to be able to provide our soldiers, civilians and family members for worldwide deployments and be able to go forth and conduct missions and return home safe and sound,” he said.

That mission focus is accompanied with the responsibility to be a good steward of the environment, Davis said.

“This is looking at our resources and taking deliberate steps to address our consumption and reducing our impact on the environment,” he explained.

It also involves working as partners with communities -- those directly on the installation as well as beyond its gates -- to pursue environmental goals. Davis pointed to the example of the Sustainable Sandhills Initiative, which was established in 2003 and brings together Fort Bragg, neighboring Pope Air Force Base and eight surrounding counties to support regional conservation programs and initiatives.

Those experiences have proven valuable in Davis’ current post as CEO for the Army Reserve, with responsibility for its 1,200 facilities worldwide.

“We in the Army Reserve are inextricably linked to the communities, because our reserve centers are there in the communities,” he said. “So the thought is, if we can get this [sustainability effort] distributed to as many of our facilities as possible, it will help us economically, it will help us to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, but it will also connect us to the communities -– many of which are trying to do much of the same thing we are doing.”

Evidence of a sustainability mind set is cropping up throughout the Army Reserve. It’s seen in a photovoltaic solar panel system on the roof of the 99th Regional Support Command headquarters at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.; a geothermal initiative at Fort Devens, Mass.; and in renovations of older buildings to make them more efficient.

One of the most exciting new developments, Davis said, is a new reserve center being built at Las Cruces, N.M., to the most stringent Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.

“This is a really big deal,” he said of the plans that will achieve either gold- or platinum-level LEED certification and exceed the silver certification the Army requires for all new buildings. “It is a huge accomplishment, by any stretch, to have a building able to meet [those] criteria,” Davis said.

While the Army Reserve builds state-of-the-art facilities and renovates older ones to make them more energy- and resource-efficient, its members are identifying new ways of doing business that promote conservation. New temperature-control systems enable users to heat and cool entire facilities during high-occupancy weekend periods, but only parts of those buildings during weekdays, when they’re minimally manned. New energy, water and natural gas meters are being installed to encourage conservation. Hybrid vehicles are being put to use at the Army Reserve’s larger training centers, and a new emphasis has been put on buying recyclable and reusable products.

Meanwhile, the Army Reserve has joined “big Army” in expanding this focus to the operational force.

“We’re trying to look at how we can apply some of these lessons learned to our forward-deployed forces, enable the mission to continue, but reduce the reliance on fossil fuel” to run generators and provide other critical support, Davis said, citing solar or wind power as possible options.

“When you boil it down to what we are trying to accomplish, we are trying to build green, buy green, go green,” he said. “From the big-picture perspective, this is obviously something that is very important to the military.”

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