From Natick To The Front Lines
On the shore of Lake Cochituate, about a mile from the Natick Collection, sits the largest U.S. Army base in New England. The Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) is tucked away on a tree-lined side street off Route 27, looking like a gated community from the outside. The notion holds until you are through the gate, driving a slow slalom through concrete barriers and armed guys search your trunk.
Although it doesn't host much in the way of military hardware, the NSRDEC is a one of the most important concentrations of military expertise and laboratory facilities in the country.
The emphasis on infantry combat in the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere along with their long duration have made the Natick Soldier Center the DoD's go-to place to figure out how to make its rank and file more effective, more comfortable, and more safe.
Afghanistan, in particular, has posed a number of logistical and soldier-protection challenges.
In the spring of 2009, the late Rep. John Murtha from Pennsylvania returned from Afghanistan with an earful of complaints from U.S. soldiers about the effectiveness of the current camouflage pattern, which was designed for dusty urban warfare (e.g., Iraq) but didn't seem to work so well in Afghanistan's wildly varying terrain.
Soldiers said they needed camouflage that was effective in mountains, sandy deserts, and irrigated croplands. The Army tapped Natick's Cheryl Stewardson, team leader for soldier integrated protection, to work up a solution in a hurry.
Forward Operations
"We quickly assembled an integrated process team that tapped into other labs and programs around the country," Stewardson said. "It wasn't just a matter of finding the best camouflage. We also had to figure out how to spin up industry to manufacture the pattern as soon as possible."
The amount of data and science required to meet the challenge was tremendous, and fortunately the NSRDEC either had the necessary resources at hand or knew where to look for them.
Furthermore, Stewardson's team included textile chemists and textile technologists and materials engineers who were able to evaluate how uniform fabric fibers and equipment surface substrates could be manufactured cost effectively with a given camouflage pattern and remain effective over time.
The nature of the fighting in Afghanistan has increased the Army and Marine Corps' reliance on forward operating bases and fortified encampments in wilderness areas.
In response, Taliban fighters have become adept at positioning anti-aircraft machineguns and light cannon near such outposts so they can fire on the inevitable transport aircraft that airdrop the supplies to the encamped U.S. forces.
After the U.S. Air Force reported that several of its cargo aircraft had been hit while conducting resupply flights, they asked for a better way.
Supply Chain
Richard Benney, division lead for aerial delivery equipment and systems, responded with the Joint Precision Aerial Delivery System (JPADS), a family of autonomous, GPS-guided, actuated parachute systems that enable the Air Force to make resupply drops at altitudes and distances outside the range of enemy anti-aircraft coverage. One of the key aspects of the system is a mission planning system that Benney won an inventor's award for.
With up-to-date weather and wind condition data, mission planners can plot drops that place parachuted cargo loads precisely on target.
The Natick Soldier Center is home to an incredibly diverse range of technology specialists and subject-matter experts. It also supports a number of laboratories and research facilities with unique capabilities.
Interestingly, the NSRDEC is always on the lookout for promising technology transfer partnership opportunities between itself and the private sector.
"It's my responsibility to be proactive and make sure that technology transfer happens as often as possible," said Jeffrey DiTullio, head of the Office of Research and Technology Applications.
What that means is that DiTullio pursues partnership opportunities with businesses, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions that fall outside the federal acquisitions process.
While statutes prohibit the NSRDEC from cutting any checks, such cooperative research development agreements enable the center to better serve warfighters in the field while offering businesses and universities access to its own expertise and research tools.
Michael Puttré is a longtime technology writer and editor and a regular columnist
for MetroWest495 Biz. He can be reached at mdputtre@verizon.net.
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