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Table of Contents
Maryland: Home to Advanced Defense Technologies
Page 4 Aberdeen Proving Ground Yesterday, today, and tomorrow Page 14 DRS Defense Solutions as Innovators Helping our warfighters defeat new threats Page 16 A Changing Workforce Meet the new face of defense Page 18 Operation Uplink Connecting deployed troops with their families Page 20 Maritime Applied Physics Corporation Naval know-how and the ships of the future
Courtesy of MAPC
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 3
Aberdeen Proving Ground
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
Story by Jennifer Keats Curtis
On 72,500 acres in rural Harford County, bordering the Chesapeake Bay and the Bush and Gunpowder rivers, sits Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), the Army’s oldest active proving ground.
Archival photos courtesy of U.S. Army
1917
Founded in 1917, the once fertile farmland is now home to thousands of soldiers and civilians who are training, researching, developing, and testing military and medical equipment, tools, solutions, and systems designed to keep our country and international interests safe. Other on-post sites include Poole’s Island, acquired in 1917 as an artillery impact area, and a hilly test area in Churchville, purchased in 1942 and still used today as a combat vehicle course. In 1941, as the U.S. entered World War II, the government bought 7,000 more acres for training and testing. Further, acreage on Spesutie Island was leased (and then acquired) in 1945 from members of a New York gun club. In 1971, Aberdeen merged with the Edgewood Arsenal, which was also established in 1917 as a production plant for chemical munitions. This combination is now collectively known as APG and spans the ZIP codes of Aberdeen, Edgewood, and Michaelville.
1920
APG Yesterday Originally an ordnance, or military weapons, testing center, APG’s history is as rich and colorful as the Maryland state flag. According to Jeffery Smart, command historian, Historical Research and Response Team, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), at APG, in 1915, during World War I, the German Army began using chemical warfare (namely, poisonous gases) against their enemies. The U.S. Army needed a place to research, design, and test weapons to gear up for this new style of warfare. In 1917, just before the U.S. joined the war effort, Colonel Colden Ruggles was told to relocate his Ordnance Command from Fort Hancock, New Jersey, to a place where the Army could safely develop and test chemical weapons and ammunition. Ruggles first attempted to purchase 17,000 acres on Kent Island, but he was rejected by farmers, explains Smart. However, Edward Stockham, a friend of Ruggles and a local landowner, suggested Aberdeen, a fertile farm area linked by railroads supporting local canneries. The Army purchased 70,000 acres of land, water, and rail line property, paid the farmers about $200 an acre for their land, and removed 3,000 people and 12,000 horses, mules, sheep, cows, and swine. The Edgewood tenant farmers were also reassigned. “Some people were disgruntled, but it was considered unpatriotic not to do what the Army told you to do,” notes Smart.
1941
The first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, created to compute World War II ballistic firing tables, enabled users to analyze in a half-minute what it took a person 20 hours to compute. Anne Kunkel works in the chemical warfare lab. A soldier training in the interior chemical lab.
1971 Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 5
A soldier puts on a gas mask in the trench. Riders and horses in masks pulling lumber, 6th Field Artillery.
“The post officially opened in December 1917, and on January 2, 1918, the first gun was fired, during a blinding snowstorm, by Stockham’s wife,” he says. Ten months later, just as the newly reorganized Aberdeen Proving Ground began performing testing, World War I ended. “During peacetime, APG’s mission was research, development, and testing, mostly on powders, projectiles, bombs, and ballistics,” says Smart. A few facilities for conducting tests were added and, over time, a hospital, small golf course, airfield, ballistic research laboratories, other laboratories, industrial areas, and the Ordnance Specialist School were added, as well. While chemicals were only used during World War I,
1950
research, development, testing, and improvements of other substances were prepared, just in case. Since its inception, APG’s military and civilian personnel have profoundly impacted the way that wars are fought, protecting Americans here and abroad from attack by chemical weapons, biological materials, and artillery. “In the beginning,” explains Smart, “officers began researching, producing, and stockpiling chemical weapons, like mustard gas. Soldiers and civilians tested the effects of chemical weapons on gas masks and protective clothing. Locals sewed gas masks for soldiers and civilians. And women moved into jobs on base during World War II as men moved out as troops.” In fact, early on, scientists and researchers were responsible
for extraordinary inventions and improvements, some of which have woven their way into civilian life: • Tear gas and pepper spray. • The Jeep—originally an “overland car”; a stripped-down version of a car that could go through mud with no more protection than that offered to a horse and rider—which has since become the modern Sport Utility Vehicle. • Gas masks were developed and improved upon at APG during the 1920s. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Walt Disney even came to APG and helped design Mickey Mouse gas masks to encourage children to wear them. Production of the masks took place on the grounds until after World War II, when the work was shifted to contractors. • Impermeable protective clothing,
1960
Gas masks for humans and animals were developed and improved upon at Aberdeen Proving Ground. During World War II, smokescreens were used by soldiers to hide their position or mask movement. “The Jeep was originally called the ‘GP’ for ‘general purpose,’” explains Maj. Gen. Nick Justice. “Soldiers can pronounce anything, even if it doesn’t have vowels.”
which became the modern-day poncho. • The first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, created to compute World War II ballistic firing tables, enabled users to analyze in a half-minute what it took a person 20 hours to compute. (Unfortunately, construction was not completed until after the war; however, the ENIAC was used to calculate top-secret computations for thermonuclear chain reactions for the hydrogen bomb.) • The first U.S. shoulder-launched bazooka, originally called the M1 Rocket Launcher, underwent field trials at APG. Before its invention, soldiers were unable to knock out a tank with anything except a grenade. • Incendiary weapons, including the
flame thrower. Over the past decade, Army researchers, engineers, and scientists have been awarded numerous “Top 10 Greatest Inventions,” many of which are defensive weapons, including the: • Blow Torch Counter-IED System, which allows soldiers to detonate Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), or roadside bombs, from a safe distance. • OmniSense Unattended Ground Sensor System, which is used to detect and classify personnel and vehicles in perimeter defense. • Lightweight Armor Kit, which is resistant to explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) that can destroy heavily armored vehicles. General Dwight Eisenhower cited the Jeep and the bazooka as
two of four pieces of equipment that helped the Allies win World War II. (The other two were the C-47 and the Atom Bomb.) “During the 1950s and 1960s, a great deal of technologicalweapons research was performed, beginning with the exploration of nerve agents,” explains Smart. “The Germans had developed Tabun and other deadly nerve agents, but these were not discovered until the war was over. “These nerve agents were very different than the chemicals used during World War I: By the time you smelled them, you would be dead.” In addition to producing agents like napalm, scientists and researchers invented protective and detective devices, such as automatic chemical alarms and personalized
1987
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 7
APG, by Definition What is a proving ground? It’s a military site where weapons or other military technology and tactics are tested (or “proved”). Ordnance: military tools, equipment, and supplies, including weapons, artillery, ammunition, and vehicles.
Find Out More about APG To learn more about Aberdeen Proving Ground, visit:
decontamination kits. Research continued until President Richard Nixon banned production of lethal chemical weapons and open-air testing in 1969. “In 1987, President Ronald Reagan authorized the production of binary chemical weapons, in which two toxic agents are contained within separate canisters of a projectile, or shell, and are not toxic until they are fired in flight and the two chemicals mix,” says Smart. The Army produced and stockpiled binary weapons through
1990
1990, leading to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the arms-control agreement that bans the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons. APG’s stockpile was completely destroyed by 2005. In 1990-1991, APG personnel tested equipment and trained soldiers for the Persian Gulf War. In 2001, a Biosafety Level 3 Lab was established just before the U.S. anthrax attacks, during which 22 people became ill and five died after inhaling bacteria that had been sent through the mail.
• The Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground, which showcases the United States’ and other countries’ tanks and early armored vehicles, anti-aircraft weapons, guns, cannons, and artillery. The museum has been affected by BRAC and will be moving to Fort Lee in 2011. In two to three years, the new Aberdeen Proving Ground Museum will be built. www.goordnance. apg.army.mil/sitefiles/ OrdnanceMuseum.htm. • The Aberdeen Room, Archives and Museum in Aberdeen. www. aberdeenroom.com. • The Harford Historical Society in downtown Bel Air. www.harfordhistory.net.
APG Today Newly built government prototypes of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle were tested to refine program requirements through rigorous ballistic, performance and reliability testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground in June. It’s all part of an effort to field a next-generation tactical vehicle that can hit speeds of 70mph, withstand roadside bombs and other threats, drive through off-road terrain and fly through the air beneath a CH-47 Chinook or CH-53 helicopter. Today photos courtesy of U.S. Army
Aberdeen Proving Ground is now Harford County’s biggest employer and, as a result of the military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, the post is about to get even larger. In fact, APG will soon undergo its greatest transformation since World War II. As bases in other states, like New Jersey’s Fort Monmouth, close, APG is welcoming new installations, such as Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (C4ISR), led by the Army’s first female program executive officer (PEO), Brigadier General N. Lee S. Price. At the same time, flags are being cased as commands such as the Ordnance Center and School depart. Previously, Aberdeen focused on biological warfare and terraincentric weapons. Today, it is poised to become a world-class research and development facility, a hub for science, technology, and innovation. “This shift is huge,” says Maj. Gen. Nick Justice, commanding general of RDECOM, the 17,000-
2000
Gen. Nick Justice plus team that creates, integrates, and delivers solutions to soldiers by developing technologies in eight major labs and research, development, and engineering centers. The installations coming in are high-tech research and development, so the demographics of the workforce are also changing to include engineering, sustainment, logistics support, and new program management. “Our motto is very simple: We are technology driven, warfighter focused,” says Justice, who served as PEO, Command, Control and
Communications-Tactical (C3T) before being promoted in 2009. “We are finding creative ways to unburden, empower, and enable our soldiers with new technologies to protect them.” As the transformation unfolds, Justice will not only focus within. He is also looking outside the Army for innovative technologies and personnel for opportunities with industry, the government, and academic institutions. He recently visited IBM, Apple, and NASCAR headquarters to learn about how commercial technology is being leveraged within major corporations to improve operations and safety. “After NASCAR’s tragic accidents in the late 90s, they’ve put new safety [measures] in the tracks, on the automobiles, and in the helmets and body harnesses,” says Justice. “I’m looking at this high-adventure, high-speed sport [because the Army has vast similarities]. We just don’t have the Sunday-afternoon TV shows.” “As the focus shifts to innovative technology, the Army is also
2008
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 9
In order to facilitate research into the limits of human hearing and the effects of Soldier equipment on perception of sounds encountered on the battlefield, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory recently completed the Environment for Auditory Research at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The combination of the research spaces and capabilities is unmatched at any military, academic or industrial facility worldwide. The facility currently covers four
2010
indoor areas including the Sphere Room, Distance Hall, Dome Room and Listening Laboratory, as well as one outdoor space, OpenEAR. The Sphere Room was created as the auditory virtual reality space for research in spatial perception and to evaluate various 3-D system implementations. The room contains 57 loudspeakers located in a spherical arrangement and an instrumented listener’s station to collect a variety of listener’s responses.
moving rapidly and deeper into personable, portable, and miniaturized systems and solutions for warfighters,” explains Mike Smith, DRS Defense Solutions project leader, whose unit is following its Army client from Fort Monmouth to APG. “Further, many of these solutions are network-centric, meaning that data can be gathered wirelessly and transmitted hierarchically to a commanding officer or center and eventually all the way back to the Pentagon. “So much now depends on situational awareness and how warfighters utilize sensors to communicate information through mobile, self-forming, rapidly changing networks,” continues Smith, a veteran soldier. “We don’t want to weigh down our warfighters with extra apparatus, so size is integral to the operation. With Personal Area Networks (PAN), heart, heat, and environmental sensors—many of which can be worn—help soldiers store and forward, or gather and transmit, important information in real time that can be displayed and processed all at once.” First responders, particularly firefighters, are using similar sensors. DRS Defense Solutions is continuing to develop and deploy PANs to enhance military and emergency operations. In addition to collaborating with industry, the Army has been reaching out to research universities here, such as Morgan State, as well as around the country and even overseas. “The Army is also awarding grants to professors to work on specific programs,” says Justice, “but the work, at this point in time, is confidential.”
2020
APG Tomorrow “During World War I, engines were horse-powered, and I mean the four-hoofed kind, not the V8,” laughs Justice. “When APG was founded in 1917, the Army was using horse-drawn artillery and, within 60 years, the Army was testing the lunar rover on APG’s testing ranges. “One hundred fifty years ago, it took Express Riders a week to go from east to west. Today, communication is so rapid, it’s nearly imperceptible,” he adds. “Science fiction may [soon] become a reality, as the smartest, brightest people engineer, design, create, and test superior technology,” says Justice. “Brilliant young scientists and engineers are developing extraordinary technology tools that give soldiers speed so they are hard to acquire as a target, and micro-
autonomous robots the size of dragonflies that can fly like wasps. “Everything I can put in a robot to make it more reliable means another soldier who is better protected and may not have to be on the front line,” he says. Other R&D efforts include sense-through-wall technology, electronic ink, and even “Iron Man” exoskeletons. The use of unmanned water and land vehicles (see the “Maritime Applied Physics Corporation” sidebar) adds another element of safety for warfighters, and the technology is there to support these efforts. “The technology being developed and in use here already is incredible,” says Justice, “and when we collaborate and create synergies with other entities, the opportunities may
Micro robot
be endless. “In 50 years, we’ll be doing the impossible,” predicts the general. “We will be using robots and unmanned vehicles for broad, automated solutions, and this will allow us to put manpower into solving cognitive challenges. “[The personnel of the future] will be thinking, creating, innovating. That is the future of our work.”
APG Incoming/Outgoing Organizations Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense
Legend
Inbound
Team C4ISR
Falls Church, VA
CECOM, PEO-C3T, PEOIEW&S, CERDEC, CCCE, PEO Integration
(250 Per - 73 Civ/13 Mil/164 Cont)
Outbound
Non-Medical Chemical/Biological Defense Development & Acquisition
Ft Monmouth, NJ Ft Belvoir, VA Redstone Arsenal, AL Ft Huachuca, AZ
Brooks City Base, TX
(67 Per – 16 Civ/12 Mil/39 Cont)
Defense Threat Reduction Agency Ft Belvoir, VA
(7700 Per – 5444 Civ/108 Mil/2148 Cont)
(31 Per - 23 Civ/0 Mil/8 Cont)
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Medical Research Materiel Command (Forest Glenn Annex, MD) (49 Per – 22 Civ/8 Mil/19 Cont)
Army Research Institute Ft Knox, KY
(15 Per – 10 Civ/0 Mil/5 Cont)
US Army Research Laboratory, Vehicle Technology Directorate Langley, VA & Glenn, OH
Army Environmental Command Ft Sam Houston, TX
(343 Per – 165 Civ/2 Mil/176 Cont)
(66 Per – 64 Civ/2 Mil/0 Cont)
US Army Test and Evaluation Command/ Army Evaluation Center-South Alexandria, VA
(610 Per – 287 Civ/184 Mil/139 Cont)
389th Army Band (AMC's Own) Redstone Arsenal, AL
US Army Ordnance Center & School Ft Lee, VA
(4107 Per – 251 Civ/662 Mil/ 141 Cont/3053 Students)
2030
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 11
Gen. N. Lee S. Price
Gen. N. Lee S. Price U.S. Army, Program Executive Officer for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical Story by Jennifer Keats Curtis
Where do you see the command going in the near future, particularly as it pertains to technological advances? Why is this important for our state, as well as nationally and internationally? Who? “Our staff of more than 1,800 personnel supports 41 key acquisition programs with expertise in the areas of computer science, program management, engineering, information technology, security, logistics, contracting and procurement, and accounting and budget.
A large percentage of our personnel are at or near retirement age and are not planning to relocate to Maryland. We are actively recruiting to fill many of these positions. We are bringing on interns, as well as more experienced personnel. It is exciting to see the new ideas and processes that this fresh set of eyes is bringing to our workforce. At any given moment, you can find us at the warfighter’s side, either in combat training centers and remote locations within the continental United States or
supporting operations in nations such as Germany, South Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We have supported 114 units in the five-phased Army process known as Unit Set Fielding, where we train, equip, ready, and Reset the force with the networked battle command solutions they require.” What? “The Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) provides warfighters with the networked battle command solutions they require to dominate the Global War on Terror. In the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have reduced fratricide through the celestial and terrestrial systems, which allow users to view icons on their maps showing the location of enemy, friendly, and neutral entities, objects, or events. We have brought an unprecedented level of collaboration to commanders who plan operations and experience shared intelligence on a computer screen. We field the satellite communications pipe on which soldiers utilize those systems, and others, such as those for fires and logistics planning and capabilities, which sense, locate, and respond to indirect fire. In achieving this, we have aligned ourselves with the Army’s required method for deploying the force and synchronized efforts with our Department of Defense partners to field capabilities when warfighters need them the most. In addition to fielding these capabilities today, we are developing the network for the future.” When? “Looking to the near future, our prime objective will be supporting forces deployed to theater. We will enhance our present technologies to meet the ongoing needs of these units and support each technology from the field and remote locations. Many of our staff members embed with units as they train at installations across the United States and deploy with them to theater. They sustain the force with
over-the-shoulder training and system troubleshooting, so soldiers can focus on their prime objective, which is engaging the enemy.” Where? “We are excited about the new campus facility being built for us at APG. For the first time, we will be collocated together with the other members of Team C4ISR. As we build partnerships with corporations outside Aberdeen Proving Ground’s gates, we will synchronize efforts with our testing, logistics, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and research and development partners on post. Our proximity will become closer as we begin to occupy our new complex in November 2010, but our focus will remain on warfighters located in vast regions across the globe.” How? “We hope to partner with the best and brightest engineers of Maryland to enhance our premier technologies and develop future capabilities. We are proud to call Maryland our home and look forward to helping the engineers of tomorrow to grow in what will become a hotbed of telecommunications. You can expect to see us at Maryland’s colleges, universities, and job fairs as we seek to augment our talented and dedicated staff. “Aberdeen Proving Ground is the focal point where we will continue to enhance our technologies, which already allow separate federal and state entities to communicate during domestic natural disasters and Coalition commanders to share intelligence and other data on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. We look forward to setting the stage for the innovators of the next generation, who will be critical assets to Maryland, the United States, and our Coalition partners.”
“Looking to the near future, our prime objective will be supporting forces deployed to theater. We will enhance our present technologies to meet the ongoing needs of these units and support each technology from the field and remote locations. Many of our staff members embed with units as they train at installations across the United States and deploy with them to theater. They sustain the force with overthe-shoulder training and system troubleshooting so soldiers can focus on their prime objective, which is engaging the enemy.” Brig. Gen. N. Lee S. Price, U.S. Army, Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical.
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 13
DRS Defense Solutions as Innovators
Helping our warfighters defeat new threats
Story by Jennifer Keats Curtis
Since World War II, our U.S. military has out-sensed, outmaneuvered, and outperformed our enemies. “But there has been a shift in how we fight our current enemies,” says Todd Borkey, chief technology officer of DRS Defense Solutions.
“Today, many of our enemies are hidden groups that operate among civilian populations and across numerous state boundaries.” They’re smart, they know how to use the Internet and other technologies, and they don’t wear uniforms. They may not even be part of a government. “Because our enemy has changed, we have also had to modify how we defend ourselves. We have had to transform.” Continues Borkey, “We are becoming much more nimble and fleet of foot by pushing more useful information to more places where it can be acted upon. We are creating numerous types of new technologies that contribute to this. “Not only have we taken big tech and made it personal and portable, we are finding innovative ways to immediately find and feed information about the enemy to command posts and users so that it can be rapidly interpreted.” These new capabilities are critical, as targets are commonly a fleeting opportunity. At DRS Defense Solutions, Borkey heads up an agile team that understands how to discover and manage innovation and technologies and rapidly incorporate them into solutions that address unsolved customer needs.
The company’s entrepreneurial culture helps provide employees with a wide aperture for discovery and optional business models. Borkey cites the need for a good process to manage it all. “Having a flexible business model and approach can create a distinct advantage by bringing complementary technologies together,” he says. Many large defense firms are conservative and bureaucratic, so they may have difficulty quickly promoting idea generation. They see rapid innovation as difficult to control and potentially counterproductive. However, the exact opposite can be true. The key is control and smart selection. If the innovation process is targeted to the right areas and communicated well, employees can have a high level of impact. Ideas can be quickly recognized and assessed at the most senior levels. “This reality sits well with junior engineers and promotes engagement between levels in the management structure,” says Borkey. “This is a healthy way to promote training and teaching. “The global war on terror has put unprecedented new demands on our defense infrastructure. The modern military dynamic is fast-paced, everchanging, lean on resources, and filled with unexpected conditions,” explains Borkey. “As we fight this new type of enemy, we must adapt the U.S. technology and procedures very quickly.” As a result, he says, innovation projects at DRS Defense Solutions are commonly targeted toward new problems. “Prior to 9/11, our systems, weapons, and service personnel were organized and trained to fight a ‘near peer-type’ enemy. [But] during the last decade, we have listened to our defense customers and rapidly adapted to add substantial new capabilities to combat insurgencies
and embedded enemies.” The challenge is finding and intercepting enemies who fight indirectly, without uniforms, and across numerous borders. One example of these new threats includes the wide use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). “We have been working diligently on new sensors which can detect IEDs from safe distances,” says Borkey. “We have worked to develop these sensors for airborne and ground applications. We innovate and develop quickly in this domain area by proposing specific solutions to the government. Solutions are commonly targeted directly toward need statements received from the field.” DRS Defense Solutions also has a number of innovation projects targeted to transform the cost and efficiency of military operations. “For example,” says Borkey, “we are making sensors smaller, and at lower cost, while improving their performance. These gains have a wide range of effects. Smaller sensors require less fuel to deploy and enable lower cost platforms to carry them thereby creating even further economies.”
With flexible business models, acute listening, and responsiveness to its customers, DRS Defense Solutions is striving to become a company known for its innovative problem solving.
“As we fight this new type of enemy, we must adapt the U.S.technology and procedures very quickly.” “Through a well designed innovation process we can find more new technology and quickly transition it into our customers’ hands,” says Borkey. “This unique style of technology management helps defend our country against enemies engaging in this new style of warfare.” For more information, visit www. drs-dr.com.
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 15
A Changing Workforce
Meet the new face of defense
Story by Jennifer Keats Curtis
The new workforce coming to Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Maryland signals not a demographic change at that military installation, but a transformation in the type of work— and type of workers—needed in the aerospace and defense industries overall.
“Modern times in the defense industry are about rapid change and adaptation,” says Todd Borkey, chief technology officer for DRS Defense Solutions. “Customer service requires customer understanding, creative problem solving, and rapid development.” DRS Defense Solutions, a Maryland based company, employs 3400 employees in a wide range of technology areas. “Many aspects of procurement and development for defense systems have had to change as a direct result of the changing environments that our forces face,” says Borkey. “The people who can innovate fastest win, and we are working feverishly on innovative, rapid solutions that help save lives.” Indeed, Maryland-based DRS Defense Solution is among the defense industry leaders
cultivating a workforce that relies heavily on STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. The need for creative thinkers is also intrinsic in this shifting industry. Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics echo this philosophy. At APG, Maj. Gen. Nick Justice, U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), sees rich opportunity and growth for Maryland residents and job seekers. He points to the highly degreed, talented scientists, biologists, physicists, chemists, engineers, and mathematicians joining the medical researchers, systems evaluators, and specialists in communications electronics—and the ways in which APG is partnering with universities, government, and industry—and sees the potential for creating another Research Triangle Park (RTP). Located in North Carolina, RTP is among the most prominent, biggest, and eldest science parks in North America—with over 170 companies employing thousands of full-time, well-educated employees and contractors—and is highly respected for its globally applied innovation. “At DRS Defense Solutions, we are always seeking to recruit and retain talented engineers, engineering support staff and program managers who understand how the company’s work supports its defense technology area clients,” says Monique d’Almeida, Director, Recruiting & Special Search. This local, highly diversified defense technology provider is one of the fastest-growing defense technology companies in the world, with annual revenues of $3.4 billion.
Out of the Service, Into DRS Defense Solutions U. S. Air Force helicopter pilot Matthew Heaton joined DRS Intelligence, Communications & Avionics Solutions (ICAS) business unit recently because he already knew the company. He used company products in his previous job to help solve problems related to Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) operations. “In the Air Force, as lead advocate for the modernization and sustainment of CSAR, I’d worked with DRS,” says Heaton, a business development manager. “As a civilian hire, I see this as an extension of those efforts and a good way to keep giving back.” Audrey Monish joined DRS Defense Solutions following a career as a U.S. Navy Information Warfare and Intelligence Officer. She is at home in her new civilian position and comfortable with the work since many of her Navy assignments and responsibilities crossed a number of intelligence related mission areas. She finished out her career serving as a Congressional Liaison Officer for Navy Intelligence Programs and Current Operations. “DRS Defense Solutions has a tremendous story to tell in terms of cutting edge technology, innovation, and business practices,” says Monish, vice president of government relations - intelligence. “I am using what I learned and experienced in the Navy to help tell it.”
Just over half of the U.S. Army’s 17,000 scientists and engineers are in Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, as well as in labs and research centers from Michigan to Florida and several places in between. Jobs break down as follows: 3,442 computer/electrical/electronic engineers 3,387 general/industrial engineers 1,630 mechanical engineers 608 chemical engineers/chemists 565 physicists/physical scientists 561 aerospace engineers 472 engineering and scientific technicians 368 mathematicians/statisticians 155 materials engineers/metallurgists 130 biologists/biomedical medical engineers 100 psychological/social scientists 23 meteorologists 9 medical research technicians Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 17
Operation Uplink
Connecting deployed troops with their families
Story by Jennifer Keats Curtis
“Our Team appreciates the Fourteen years ago, the largest organization of combat free phone calls, in addition veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), launched to the very reasonable Operation Uplink so that deployed and hospitalized troops rates. The services you could phone home for free using calling cards. provide (Internet and In 2006, the program used technology to dramatically expand service members’ ability to communicate with faraway loved ones through new Voice Phones) mean a lot over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipped phones at 191 Internet cafés in Iraq especially in this part of the and Afghanistan managed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center world (Baghdad). Thank you Atlantic (SPAWAR). “Today, the program reaches more of our troops in these two war zones for thinking of us in your via nearly 900 locations, and soldiers are able to talk longer since VoIP is less expensive, especially when calling-card shipping costs are considered,” own little way.”
explains Linda Ferguson, VFW Operation Uplink program leader. “Troops fill our cafés during Free Call Days, and we get nothing but positive feedback from them about the program,” says Mike Hartman, SPAWAR Internet Café program manager, from his office in Germany. During at least one designated Free Call Day each month, deployed service members can call the U.S. and landline phones in Germany and Italy from their local SPAWAR Internet Café, most of which are located at Morale Welfare & Recreation (MWR) centers.
“When they place the call, they are greeted by a recording telling them their call is free, courtesy of VFW Operation Uplink and the Free Call Day sponsor,” says Ferguson. The VFW’s Operation Uplink sponsor information is posted on the VFW’s Facebook and Twitter pages, on the SPAWAR Internet Café website, and on flyers placed within the cafés so that troops will know when the next Free Call Day is, and who will be sponsoring the gift. Due to the growing popularity of the Free Call Day program and generous sponsorships by Sport Clips, Harleysville Insurance, LifeLock, USAA, UAW-GM, and DRS Technical Services, over 80,000 calls are placed during each Free Call Day. To date, Free Call Days have provided over four million free phone calls and 50 million minutes in free talk time. “Beginning in September, the VFW will offer Free Call Days twice each month, making over 160,000
connections for America’s troops and their families,” says Ferguson, who is seeking additional sponsor support to grow the program. “The troops would love to see every Sunday of every week become a Free Call Day. This could become a reality if more sponsors joined the program.” Adds Dr. Mitch Rambler, president of DRS Technical Services, “DRS proudly endorses the VFW’s Operation Uplink program. We sponsor a Free Call Day on the anniversary of 9/11 each year. This sponsorship commemorates the sacrifices made by many of our citizens and citizens of other countries on that horrific day, and it highlights the challenges our troops and their families have met and overcome since then. As our military families struggle to stay connected during each additional tour of duty, it’s important that we support them, and that they hear from us. The Free Call Day program does that.”
“Thanks so much! I love the free calls. It saves us some money and it shows that people do care about our family members that are overseas. Sometimes it seems like no one truely understands how hard it is for us family members back home. We have alot of sleepless nights worrying about our loved ones and that one phone call helps us sleep so much better at night.” “I call home everyday, and talk for only a few minutes to save the phone card, but on the free phone call days its nice because I can talk as long as I want. Thank you for the free phone call days.”
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 19
Maritime Applied Physics Corp
Naval know-how and the ships of the future
Story by Jennifer Keats Curtis
In the 1940s, emergency shipyards were established in the U.S. to quickly and cheaply build large ships that could transport people and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean in support of the war effort. In Baltimore, the Bethlehem Steel Company was among the sites selected to build these vessels.
Called Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard after its suburban location, this emergency yard became the first to launch a Liberty Ship, thus named because the boat was christened the S.S. Patrick Henry. By 1945, approximately 47,000 employees—mostly women, since American men were serving abroad—had built 385 of 2,751 wartime Liberty Ships. While that first transport ship took eight months to build, by the end of the war, those many and efficient workers ably launched a ship every six weeks. Today, this historical site on the Patapsco River is occupied by a nimble engineering company which designs and builds innovative water and land vessels of a different sort while maintaining the same commitment—to enhance national and international security
MAPC welders, on the site of the old Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, assemble an unmanned surface vessel for Navy applications. MAPC stands at the site of the old Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, the first emergency yard to launch a Liberty Ship, in 1943
Photos courtesy of MAPC
by designing and manufacturing systems navigated by the military. In fact, with the remnants of that Liberty Ship pier still in its back yard, and Founder/President Mark Rice at the helm, the 70 engineers and fabricators of Maritime Applied Physics Corporation (MAPC) have been designing, welding, forming, and fabricating rather extraordinary marine craft and technical services for the U.S. Government for 24 years. Thanks to more than 25 awards under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, as well as partnerships and contracts with larger companies like General Dynamics and AAI Corporation,
the entrepreneurial Rice and his employees have “rapidly prototyped” a number of “emerging innovative technologies” for the Navy and other clients. Not only has the company designed and built high-speed, high-tech hydrofoils, electric SMART cars for Daimler-Chrysler Corporation, and an all-terrain bus for a local wildlife reserve, they’ve also prototyped unmanned surface and undersea vehicles and a watercraft launch and recovery system, says John Doran, MAPC’s manager of business development. With a staff that includes a range of engineering disciplines and naval architects, plus a state-of-the-art
machine shop and assembly/test capability, MAPC welcomes technical challenges requiring innovative solutions, says Doran. Rice says his company will continue to work on pioneering transportation for the state and beyond. For several years, he has been discussing the possibility of high-speed ferries for the Chesapeake Bay with the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). For more information, visit www. mapcorp.com.
Maryland: A State of Innovation | Maryland Life 21
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