Innovations meant to enhance Soldiers’ quality of life during deployments — while saving lives, fuel, water and money — were on display here Nov. 5, on the Army Base Camp Integration Laboratory.
The Army Base Camp Integration Laboratory, or BCIL, hosted its second annual “Base Camp Resource and effort Efficiency Day.” Situated on 10 acres at Fort Devens, the laboratory features two “Force Provider” 150-person base camps. One contains standard technologies; any other offers a glimpse into the military’s energy future.
Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, and Lt. Gen. Raymond V. Mason, Army deputy chief of staff, Logistics, were among those attending the development. They were briefed about shelters, power management, energy storage, waste disposal and waste-to-energy systems, alternative energy, micro-grids, energy-efficient structures, rigid-wall camps, and fuel-fired kitchens.
“It’s just great to determine the strides that we’re making, the systems that we’re testing,” Hammack said. “The team this is doing a great job finding new technologies, testing them, getting modifications made, and determining the resiliency of the systems in advance of deploying them with our Soldiers.”
Mason said each of the work toward resource and fuel efficiency was done to aid Soldiers deal with their missions. He used the hypothetical example of a forward operating base in Afghanistan that has 20 fuel trucks pull as much as its front gate.
“Soldiers are put in peril protecting that convoy,” Mason said. “Then you’ve got to get those 20 fuel trucks through your front gate. One and all of these trucks is usually a potential bomb. Then you’ve got to store all that fuel somewhere in your forward operating base, that means you’ve got to construct an even bigger [FOB], and that fuel becomes an enormous target for either indirect or direct fire. Our purpose is to attenuate down that risk by reducing down the quantity of fuel that’s had to conduct combat operations.”
And once it’s stored, much of it goes to something apart from fueling vehicles or aircraft, Mason noted.
“Nearly 50 percent of the fuel that’s consumed in Afghanistan on Army operating bases is producing generator power,” Mason said.
Hammack referred to that 70 to 80 percent of all ground convoys in Afghanistan, as measured by weight, encompass fuel and water deliveries.
“And so through better power management, flexible power sources, lightening the energy load on our Soldiers — all combined — we’re ready to redirect our manpower and our equipment assets back to the mission,” said Hammack, “and that increases our agility and it increases our effectiveness overall.”
More than 12,000 service members training at Fort Devens rotate annually during the BCIL, providing invaluable user input about systems being developed here, with the last word goal of trimming fuel and water usage on base camps by 50 percent. Such innovations as micro-grids, solar shades, shelter liners and shower water reuse systems have already brought that goal towards reality.
“When you observe the reductions to this point, in many years, it’s remarkable,” said Kevin Fahey, with Program Executive Officer, Combat Support & Combat Service Support. “And i believe numerous that’s our ability to check things and get users on it and get feedback quickly, after which [be] ready to prove that it really is the item we’d like installed the Soldiers’ and the Marines’ hands within the field.”
This progress have been made despite the budgetary headwinds faced by all Army programs.
“I think this BCIL will survive declining budgets because it’s proved the return on investment and the capabilities, and shortened the purchase process,” said Hammack, “and all of these represent costs to the military and charges to this nation.”
Mason said it’s critical to preserve funding for such programs because the BCIL.
“If we don’t spend appropriately in science and technology, research and development, we’re going find ourselves at the battlefield in a situation where our enemies have a comparative advantage over us, instead of the opposite direction around,” said Mason, “and our Soldiers are going to be put at more risk.”
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