FEATURE ARTICLE

November 2006

Army Lab Channels Expertise to Non-Traditional Areas

By Harold Kennedy

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — When the United States invaded Iraq, the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center began tackling a host of problems that were far removed from traditional chemical or biological defense, such as roadside bombs.

“The war on terror has increased what we do here rather dramatically,” Associate Director Jim Baker told National Defense. “More and more people are discovering we exist.”

This summer, Edgewood built and shipped to the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., four mine-clearing surrogate vehicles for use by soldiers preparing for deployment. The mine-clearing vehicles, known as Buffalos, are in urgent demand in Iraq, and are not available for training.

To fill this need, engineers modified existing five-ton Army trucks to resemble Buffalos, inside and out. “We have had 60 people on this project,” said Mark Schlein, senior team leader.

Edgewood received the request in early June. The fourth vehicle was shipped in August.

At a computer-aided design and engineering facility, meanwhile, technicians are creating molds for artificial body parts for Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University, explained engineer Rich Moore. The system uses sophisticated three-dimensional scanning hardware and software to generate design models for prosthetics for military personnel disfigured in combat.

Designers strive for the most lifelike look possible, Moore said. “Our prosthetic ears come in eight different colors so we can try to match each patient’s natural skin tone,” he said.

The facility also is working at a breakneck pace to meet the heavy demand. “To tell you the truth, I never understood the need for speed before 9/11,” Moore said.

Such examples are not unusual, Baker said. Growing ranges of military and civilian organizations are coming to Edgewood for assistance. Among them: the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force, the Special Operations Command, the Defense Department’s Technical Support Working Group, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security.

To accommodate the increased workload, the center has added 550 employees during the past five years, which brings the total workforce to 1,500 scientists, engineers and technicians.

Edgewood has an annual budget of $400 million, and that does not include congressional add-ons, Baker said.

The center — established during World War I to help protect American forces against German gas attacks — is now part of the Research, Development and Engineering Command.

Edgewood maintains a vast array of test facilities here at Aberdeen, many of them decades old. It is in the process of moving into a new $45 million advanced chemistry laboratory with 54,000 square feet of research space and 20,000 square feet of administration and support areas. The lab will replace a facility that was built in 1963 and has become outmoded and difficult to maintain, explained Mark D. Brickhouse, acting deputy director for research and technology.

The advanced lab will be highly instrumented, he said. It will be able to analyze chemicals at the parts-per-billion level. It will contain four nuclear magnetic resonance suites, which will allow scientists to determine the molecular structure of chemicals. This will support research in the fields of decontamination, carbon studies and sample analysis for the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty.

This treaty, which took effect in 1997, bans the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. Each of the 175 countries that signed the document is allowed to operate a single small-scale facility to manufacture tiny quantities of chemical agents to be used in the research and development of defensive measures. Edgewood will serve in that role for the United States.

The lab, built in two wings, is designed to be easily expandable, Brickhouse said. A third wing already has been proposed.

One of the big improvements, Brickhouse said, is the size of the new lab’s engineering hoods. These leak-proof structures are built to house hazardous substances, such as chemical or biological agents, with which researchers are working. Workers gain access to the materials through “pass-through” holes that can be sealed airtight.

“Right now, I’ve got lots of hoods, but none of them are big enough,” Brickhouse said. The largest hood in the old lab is three to four feet tall, which is too small for many projects, he said. One in the new building is 20 feet in height.

Security and safety standards are high. Pass cards are required for entry. The building’s entrances contain airlocks, with revolving doors, so that if a chemical is released accidentally the facility can be sealed off to prevent leaks into the outside environment.

Care is taken to prevent contamination throughout Edgewood’s other facilities as well, Baker said. At the center’s Biological Safety Level 3 Laboratory, scientists have to shower before entering and leaving the facility, even to go to the bathroom. “They don’t drink much coffee in the morning,” he said.

Technologies to help cope with a chemical and biological attack in the United States became a sharper focus for Edgewood after the 2001 anthrax attacks, he said. The center has developed a fleet of mobile laboratories that can be deployed to potential targets for chemical or biological attack.

The labs typically are housed in large semi-trailers and have all the equipment needed to analyze chemical, biological and other hazardous material on the spot. They are equipped with fume hoods, filtration systems and power backup units that exceed standard requirements for field operations.

Two were provided for the 2001 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. In a separate project, the FBI explosives unit ordered a self-supporting, trailer-mounted vehicle, including a suite of specialized analytical systems.

Edgewood has built five variants of the labs to provide a range of capabilities, including atmospheric monitoring, on-site chemical analysis, soil extraction and surface water testing. Laboratory operators generally can perform these investigative functions within a 24-hour turnaround time.

To find more accurate ways to identify chemical agents, Edgewood and ITT Industries have conducted field tests at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, that use Raman spectroscopy mounted on a Humvee, said Edgewood engineer Darren Emge. The Raman technology — named for one of its discoverers, Indian scientist C.V. Raman — uses the light generated by molecules to detect and identify selected chemical agents.

During the tests, researchers measured the ultra violet Raman spectra of traditional blister and nerve chemical agents, plus 30 non-traditional compounds and simulants. This research eventually will lead to a reference library of Raman signatures, Emge said. Edgewood then plans to load this information into detection devices that can identify chemical agents more accurately from a short distance.

Sometimes, however, the situation on the ground is too dangerous to send in humans to do the work, said Cynthia R. Swim, senior team leader for standoff detection. To fill this gap, Edgewood in June unveiled a PackBot unmanned ground vehicle equipped with sensors to detect radiation and chemical agents.

The vehicle is designed to inspect potentially hazardous areas, such as tunnels or caves, and send data back to soldiers or first responders, who remain at a safe distance. It can collect air samples and detect oxygen levels, lower explosive levels, volatile organic compounds, gamma radiation, toxic industrial materials, and chemical warfare agents.

Once sensitive pieces of military equipment, such as avionics or computers, have been contaminated by a chemical or biological agent, cleaning them up can be difficult, because the materials used are often too caustic for complex gear, said Terri Lalain, the center’s acting team leader for decontamination sciences.

Decontaminating large items, such as aircraft, has been a particular challenge, she said.

Edgewood and Steris Corp. of Mentor, Ohio, have developed a fumigation technology that may do the job, Lalain said. The new system, known as modified vaporous hydrogen peroxide, or mVHP, is a low-temperature, dry decontamination process that uses an extremely fine mist to eradicate chemical and biological agents, she explained.

Edgewood scientists have tested mVHP on a C-141 aircraft at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. Results were so promising that they are considering trying it on the F-35 joint strike fighter.

One issue that concerns Edgewood officials is attracting young professionals who can maintain the center’s technical edge in the years ahead. “Our older generation with all of its expertise is retiring,” said spokesperson Kristie Durst. The center is bringing in younger workers to replace them, but it’s not easy to do, Baker said.

“You don’t become a chem-bio expert when you walk out the college door with a PhD — I can attest to that. You do that by getting a job at a place like this, working here for years and learning.”

Please email your comments to HKennedy@ndia.org

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