Air Mobility Battelab seeks innovative ideas
The AMB, located within the Air Mobility Warfare Center at Fort Dix, N.J., is a place dedicated to investigations and experiments to prove the worth of new ideas for Rapid Global Mobility.
"We're in the practical solutions business," said Lt. Col. Mark Surina, Battlelab commander. "We respond quickly to investigate ideas. Our product is information about those ideas so AMC can determine whether they should be procured and integrated into air mobility operations. The Battlelab drives changes to acquisition, training, tactics, and doctrine-often starting with an individual's idea."
While the AMB received its official designation Jan. 1, the staff has already worked ideas from the past two years, which are:
--an inexpensive night-vision compatible lighting harness for the C-130 cockpit;
--an off-the-shelf laser sight for night use of the M203 grenade launcher used by security forces;
--active noise cancellation headsets for AMC VIP aircraft;
--a bioterrorism response training plan for Air Force medical personnel;
--headsets to ease communications between aeromedical evacuation crews and their patients in flight;
--advanced computing methods to rapidly and cheaply design flare patterns to protect the C-17;
--a shield for the C-130 paratroop door and jump platform which virtually eliminates static line failures;
--a low-cost, disposable pallet to be used for humanitarian resupply operations, instead of the expensive and sometimes scarce 463L version; and
-- a tablet-sized "kneeboard" computer capable of displaying some of the Air Force's most popular mission planning software.
These ideas, most of which are either in use or being evaluated for acquisition by various units in AMC, started with ideas carried into the Battlelab by its small staff, said Surina.
The staff is currently working projects such as a clear plastic "bubble" window for the C-17 (similar to that used in C-130s) and the use of inexpensive worldwide communications for deployed AMC aircraft, among many others.
Surina said that while the ideas continue to increase, the number of staff members needs to increase as well. Already, the AMB expanded to 20 people from its original 12, and will ultimately be composed of 25 active duty positions by 2003. The AMB is now seeking additional reservists and individual mobility augmentees in particular career fields, as Air Force officials work to fill 13 new Battlelab positions.
"This team will be fueled by creativity and perseverance with a interaction between many disciplines," said Surina, himself an acquisitions officer. "We'd especially like to add a captain or major transportation officer from the Army to our Battlelab. The Army is our heaviest customer, and the Army presence would complement our work. We seek Air Force people in a broad range of specialties who will find themselves often working outside their own specialties. It can have a big payoff for those folks."
For instance, Lt. Col. Diane Fletcher is a nurse with an aeromedical specialty, and as the Battlelab branch chief, can keep current on her flying hour requirement, as would all members who have flying positions.
"A battlelab tour might be perceived as outside one's traditional career path," she said. "Yet ,I've already seen visible and quick payoffs from some simple ideas I brought to the Battlelab for those that work in my field. That's very rewarding."
Ideas from individuals continue to drive many AMB efforts, and the staff is always seeking ideas and staff members from the field. Its website, www.amwc.af.mil/wcb <http://www.amwc.af.mil/wcb>, contains an idea submission form and other information on job opportunities there. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND NEWS SERVICE)
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