SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) --- Air Force battlelabs, those seven hubs of aerospace innovation, generally do not find themselves involved in conducting wargames. But Lt. Col. Mark Surina, commander of the Air Force Air Mobility Battlelab, Fort Dix, N.J., and his staff were smack in the middle of Global Mobility Wargame 2002.
GLOMO 2002 was a first-of-its-kind wargame to examine future Air Force and defense transportation and logistics capabilities before the war begins.
"We're helping Air Mobility Command with its integration into the Global Engagement exercises. This is a new role for a battlelab, and one of our most visible programs this year," said Surina. "But beyond that, we're working hard to bring rapid innovation into the arsenal of air mobility."
AMC first set up its battlelab in 1998. It was a two-person operation funded through the Air Mobility Warfare Center. A request from AMC to set up a mobility operation co-equal to the other battlelabs triggered an Air Force study of all the labs. The result, the Air Force Air Mobility Battlelab was added in January 2001 as the seventh such organization and came under AMC's direction. Today the AMB has 21 people in a wide range of Air Force specialties.
The Air Force Battlelabs focus on finding innovative concepts and emerging technologies to meet operational needs quickly. Concept candidates are gathered from a wide variety of sources from industry to academia and airmen in the field. The battlelabs assess the concept for their ability to increase warfighting capabilities and reduce costs, and the feasibility of demonstrating the concept.
One strategy the battlelabs use is the Warrior Outreach Program to each major command, a biennial group visit by representatives of each battlelab to assess operational needs to drive innovation efforts. All seven battlelabs use information from such visits to come up with their top priorities for investigation.
The AMB already logged a few major innovations. One project included finding the technical solution for global communications connectivity for aircraft. The Space community had looked at Iridium phones; the AMB demonstrated the phones could be used in C-130 aircraft.
After Sept. 11, Air Force found its aeromedical evacuation crews didn't have ready response guides. Lab solution: a compilation of lecture CDs and references from the Army experts on infectious agents. Every medical and AE unit in the Air Force can now get this guide. The Defense Department is also looking at wider use.
Some innovations have wider applications beyond the airlift community. One such area is force protection. Surina explained the lab had a request for a day-and-night-capable site for an M-203 grenade launcher. The staff pursued a clip-on site compatible with night vision goggles. The site demonstrated it improved accuracy of fire to nearly 100 percent.
"This one has made it to the field. The Army has already bought several thousand," said Surina.
Another project was researching noise-cancellation headsets. The battlelab staff researched the best three candidates for use in AMC aircraft. B-2 and B-52 aircrews have already adopted the system.
"We find what's out there and bring it in for application. We do no development, we don't certify. We work out new concepts of operation, investigate, show feasibility and provide compelling information that a specific innovation is worthy of pursuit," said Surina. "There's no magic bullet, no 100 percent solution to some of our challenges. But we can get the 80 percent solution off-the-shelf today," said Surina.
In the future, the AMB will pursue technology for better precision airdrops, force protection and ways to support the emerging Global Mobility Task Force.
And although not in the realm of off-the shelf technology to the warfighter, the AMB has brought its role of catalyst to the Global Mobility 2002 Wargame, fostering partnerships among experts in wargaming, joint mobility, doctrine and logistics as well as helping to assemble the players to create a realistic air mobility global wargame.
