The first MPS protective wall was fielded in Iraq in 2008, and it did not take long for Soldiers and ERDC’s researchers to envision other applications for the system, such as mortar pits, guard towers, and entry control points. ERDC researchers soon began adapting the system’s components to provide overhead cover (OHC) that would protect command posts and other high-value assets from mortar fire.

As ERDC researchers have developed the MPS, a larger joint program, the Deployable Force Protection (DFP) program, has been conducting research into active force protection technologies such as electronic sensors, facial recognition systems, and gunfire detection systems. During DFP technology demonstrations at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La., several different applications of the MPS – a perimeter wall with detonation screen, an OHC, a guard tower, and a personal inspection lane – were assailed with a variety of weapons, including mortar rounds, a rocket-propelled grenade, a simulated vehicle bomb, and a simulated suicide vest. All the MPS components provided highly successful protection that would have saved Soldiers’ lives. Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division erected four MPS mortar pit kits and one MPS OHC kit in the spring of 2012 in Afghanistan; another MPS OHC kit was constructed by other Soldiers.

 

Pushing Expertise into the Field – Paperlessly

USACE is one of the nation’s premier disaster relief agencies, and among the first to acknowledge that in emergencies, when every second counts, the traditional method of doing government work isn’t up to the task. In 2008, after Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, USACE fulfilled its Blue Roof mission of providing temporary home roof repairs by sending inspectors into the field to meet with homeowners, assess damage, determine eligibility for assistance, and assign relief work to contractors. In the process, USACE generated 90,000 pieces of paper that required tracking and manual entry into a database.

ERDC’s Reachback Operations Center and Information Technology Laboratory, as part of the Army’s larger strategy for exploring the use of mobile device technology in all its operations, began in 2010 to test mobile operating systems. The resulting pilot field management system, more commonly known as the “Blue Roof App,” was installed on more than 120 iPhone® and iPad® devices. The entire process – from homeowners’ application, inspections, and contractor assignments – was dramatically improved for homeowner relief. What used to take days literally now takes seconds with the help of the mobile network.

During the Mississippi River flood of 2011, as flood response teams in USACE’s Memphis District were receiving their daily briefing on levee and flood problem areas, an ERDC employee, noting that some field images and notes were 24 to 36 hours old, approached ERDC about a better solution. Within 48 hours, the first version of the Mobile Information Collection Application, or MICA, was installed on 50 Android™ mobile phones and deployed to seven flood-damaged cities. Twelve thousand pictures, videos, and notes – each data item specified by its GPS coordinates – were then transmitted from the field directly to command centers, enabling commanders and emergency teams to review new data instantly.

MICA’s immediate success, and the resulting cost savings during the 2011 Mississippi River mission, earned it USACE’s 2012 Innovation of the Year Award, and much attention from other agencies and organizations. The city of Detroit, Mich. – which lost a quarter of its population between 2000 and 2010, leaving it with 40,000 abandoned properties – began using MICA during the summer of 2012, sending out inspectors to catalog candidates for demolition. USACE is considering adapting MICA – an application with literally unlimited potential – for use in a variety of missions, including real estate inspections, debris removal, and post-disaster ice and water distribution; the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), intrigued by MICA’s potential to bridge the data gap between federal, state, and local authorities, has requested multiple MICA demonstrations. Seventy MICA-equipped smartphones were deployed to New York, New Jersey, and other locations for Hurricane Sandy response. They provided fantastic support in infrastructure assessment, housing, debris, and other missions as part of the federal response.

 

Super Materials: from Nanoscale to Macroscale

For several years now, scientists around the world have been experimenting with so-called “super materials” whose physical properties – strength and conductivity, for example – greatly surpass those currently in widespread use. These super materials have the potential to transform the world’s basic infrastructures. One of these materials is graphene – a two-dimensional sheet of pure carbon atoms, arranged in a honeycomb lattice. A second related material is carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes can be thought of as rolled tubes of graphene. Together, carbon nanotubes and graphene are the strongest material yet discovered. A fiber the diameter of a fine pencil lead (0.5 millimeter), if it had the strength of a perfect carbon nanotube, could support the weight of a large car (4,700 pounds). Graphene and carbon nanotubes also can be extremely conductive, making them ideal candidates for high-speed electronics, photonics, and optics applications.