Natick Base Camp Team to Demonstrate Science, Technology Innovations

NATICK, Mass. (April 23, 2015) – The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, along with the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, will host a demonstration of base camp technologies at Fort Leonard Wood this week.

NSRDEC’s Sustainability Logistics Basing, Science and Technology Objective – Demonstration, or SLD-STO-D, team will present nine integrated technology and non-materiel solution sets in a collaborative effort to reduce fuel resupply by 25 percent, reduce water resupply by 75 percent, and decrease waste generation for back haul by 50 percent at 50 to 1,000 personnel expeditionary base camps while maintaining current quality of life.

“This demonstration and assessment of new base camp technologies are very important for the Army and the joint warfighter. These nine technologies are critical to the objectives of reducing the fuel, water and waste water removal requirements of expeditionary base camps, which will reduce the need for re-supply and reduce the risk to our warfighters conducting re-supply operations,” said Maj. Gen. John F. Wharton, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command commanding general.

The collaborative effort is funded by the office of the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology and managed by RDECOM, with participation by other RDECOM organizations including the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center.

Other key partners are the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other members of the capability development community including Program Executive Office Combat Support and Combat Service Support.

“The collaboration between RDECOM’s NSRDEC Sustainability/Logistics-Basing Science and Technology Objective-Demonstration team, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence Contingency Basing Integration Technology Evaluation Center is the key to the integration and success of future expeditionary basing. It’s a great example of how RDECOM is working with TRADOC and other partners to understand the requirements and use our expertise and partnerships to deliver the best capability to the Soldier, Joint Warfighter and Nation,” Wharton said.

The event will be held at Fort Leonard Wood’s Contingency Basing Integration and Technology Evaluation Center, or CBITEC, and will also include a demonstration and ration sampling by NSRDEC’s Department of Defense Combat Feeding Directorate.

This is the second operationally relevant demonstration event that SLD-STO-D will conduct to showcase nine integrated fuel and water waste technologies in a 1,000-person base camp setting at CBITEC.

“We are utilizing a model-based systems engineering approached to show how the selected technologies within the Army’s S&T [science and technology] portfolio can contribute to a 25 percent reduction in fuel, 75 percent reduction in water resupply and a 50 percent reduction in waste backhaul at base camps compared to an established operationally relevant baseline,” said Gregg Gildea, team leader for NSRDEC’s Sustainability Logistics Basing, Science and Technology Objective – Demonstration team.

The demonstration will be held in conjunction with CBITEC’s Leadership Demonstration Day will provide an overview of the SLB-STO-D effort and a detailed walk-through of the demonstration venue and each of the nine technologies to leverage all available resources at a single time.

The key purpose in the demonstration is to collect empirical data on selected candidate technologies, in an operationally relevant environment, to be used to calibrate models, conduct simulations and perform trade-off analysis part of the systems engineering process to show how we will meet our objectives.

Outcomes will be used to inform Army leadership on future S&T investments for enhanced technology transition while identifying future operational gaps and allow for efficient contingency base planning.