Joint Detection and Dismounted Reconnaissance Systems
Written by Edward Conley, Carolyn Matz, and Jennifer Brown
MMT 2012 Volume: 16 Issue: 1 (February)
Weapons of mass destruction continue to be a concern throughout the world. Joint forces often encounter situations ranging from unknown dangerous chemicals used in improvised explosive device (IED) labs and factories to abandoned unknown bulk hazardous materials (HAZMAT) storage areas. Whether the threat is a chemical or biological warfare agent, toxic industrial material (TIM), radiological material, or other emerging threat, the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense is focused on combating these threats wherever they may occur. The Joint Project Manager for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Contamination Avoidance (JPMNBC CA) supports this goal by improving current capabilities to detect and mitigate these threats with two key developmental programs: the Next Generation Chemical Point Detector (NGCPD) and the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Dismounted Reconnaissance System (DRS). Typical missions include reconnaissance and surveillance, post-attack hazard assessment, sensitive site assessment, and area monitoring.
The NGCPD is a new-start program in FY13 to develop the next-generation chemical point sensor to improve detection and identification capabilities over the currently fielded Joint Chemical Agent Detector (JCAD). JCAD is a lightweight, handheld vapor detector that provides the capability to automatically detect and identify chemical warfare agents (CWA) and select toxic industrial chemicals (TIC) using ion mobility spectrometry. JCAD augments other fielded chemical detectors for tasks performed in support of chemical reconnaissance/ monitoring and site assessment conducted by Army and Marine Corps maneuver forces, Air Force airbase operations forces and Navy ashore forces. The JCAD can also be employed in an array to provide remote monitoring around and within the perimeter of a forward operating base or identified areas of concern.
Joint forces often encounter unique situations beyond the traditional CBRN mission, which involve toxic and unknown chemicals that are undetectable or unidentifiable by standard detection capabilities. In these situations, it is imperative that warfighters are able to detect additional TICs, TIMs, CBRN and emerging threats. While JCAD can detect some of these agents, it has limitations that will be addressed by the NGCPD and CBRN DRS programs.
The NGCPD will provide a combination of handheld, stationary, and on-the-move point detection, identification and quantification capabilities to address a broad range of applications. The NGCPD will expand detection and identification CWA vapors in limited environments to detection, identification and quantification CWA, TIC, and emerging threats solids, liquids and vapors. The NGCPD will also provide greater sensitivity and selectivity than the JCAD and operate in the shipboard and aircraft (fixed and rotary wing) environments not currently addressed by JCAD. Additionally, NGCPD will provide integrated payloads for manned, man-portable and unmanned platforms to support. The NGCPD will support Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy sensitive site exploitation, battle damage assessments, battle management and CBRN reconnaissance missions while enhancing decision making for joint force commanders and maritime interdiction operations. It will provide the basis for future CWA, TIC and emerging threat detection to protect the warfighter during standalone, mounted and dismounted operations. It will be used in future reconnaissance systems such as those developed under the CBRN DRS.
The CBRN DRS program is a two-pronged approach to meeting operational needs. The program of record, Dismounted Reconnaissance Set, Kits and Outfits (DR SKO), is integrating capability to assess all CBRN hazards to enhance tactical CBRN reconnaissance and surveillance, sensitive site assessment/exploitation, battle damage assessments, battle management and CBRN reconnaissance for the Army tactical forces and civil support teams, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. In addition, the services have identified urgent operational needs that are being deployed in parallel to the DR SKO development.
A basic dismounted reconnaissance mission involves donning personal protective gear, loading up with handheld sensors, samplecollection devices and hazard-marking devices, and walking into a suspected CBRN contaminated environment. While in the hot zone, warfighters search for HAZMAT using visual inspection techniques and detection devices, such as the JCAD. If hazards are found, the warfighters collect a sample, mark the location, report the incident and continue the mission. Upon completion of the mission, the warfighters exit the contaminated environment for decontamination (including their equipment). Any collected samples are then sent off to a laboratory for confirmatory or other analysis. All of this is accomplished using the capabilities provided by the DR SKO. Fundamentally, DR SKO turns a warfighter into a fully protected, mobile reconnaissance platform for CBRN sensors and equipment.
Due to the diverse mission set, the DR SKO is designed to be flexible and tailored to mission requirements. The system consists of a collection of commercial and government off-the-shelf equipment. This set of equipment will provide personal protection from CBRN hazards (including TIC/TIM and emerging threats), CBRN detection, presumptive identification, sample collection, decontamination, and marking and hazard reporting. Both JCAD and future NGCPD are planned components integral to the DR SKO system to conduct area reconnaissance for CWA materials. DR SKO is currently in the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Department of Defense acquisition cycle and scheduled for a low-rate initial production decision in November 2012. DR SKO will provide over 400 systems for worldwide deployment.
In response to operational needs statements (ONS) that work to quickly identify equipment or resources required to protect life and enhance mission success, JPM-NBC CA deployed DR SKO-like systems to support efforts in theaters of operations. The ONS system was fielded in Germany and Korea and will be fielded in Southwest Asia in fiscal year 2012 to replace aging predecessor systems. Other systems are being fielded to continental United States military units in preparation for deployment. In addition, some specialized systems have been fielded to support detection of emerging threats as well. The capabilities identified in the ONS will be merged into a future system to ensure DR SKO provides an all-hazards capability.
The CBRN DRS and NGCPD will increase the joint force capability to conduct dismounted CBRN reconnaissance in confined spaces and terrain that is inaccessible to CBRN reconnaissance vehicles, to characterize HAZMAT events or accidents, and to conduct weapons of mass destruction detection or denial operations. The CBRN DRS and NGCPD will enable joint forces to detect and identify CBRN contamination and collect samples for confirmatory analysis in support of strategic WMD elimination and interdiction operations, homeland defense consequence management operations and tactical force protection operations. ♦
Edward Conley is Joint Product Manager, Reconnaissance and Platform Integration, JPM-NBC CA; Carolyn Matz is Product Director Sensors, JPM-NBC CA; Jennifer Brown is from the Strategic Communications Team, JPM-NBC CA.