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From test tube to battlefield
http://soldiers.dodlive.mil/2015/03/from-test-tube-to-battlefield/

Dugway Proving Ground, almost two hours outside Salt Lake City, is nestled among three mountain ranges in Utah. It’s remote desert location and ample size — roughly 1,300 square miles — make it the ideal place for testing artillery, and chemical and biological agents.

“Dugway Proving Ground is a test and evaluation proving ground,” Col. Ron Fizer, base commander, said. “Because of that we run a range of tests, primarily associated with our mission to provide chemical and biological offense equipment to our warfighters, as well as help support the national defense strategy for counteracting WMD, or weapons of mass destruction, with capabilities that have been validated here before we put them in the hands of the warfighter.”

The proving ground operates on a “test tube to battlefield” concept, meaning that any equipment tested here has been certified, from small-scale lab experiments through real-time range and environmental testing.

West Desert Test Center

All the testing activities on DPG happen at the West Desert Test Center, several miles from Dugway’s headquarters.

“We have eight divisions that help execute all that testing, from the labs and the chamber testing … out to the test grids with our air field and range control,” Ryan Harris, director of the test center, explained.

Additionally, the center often hosts Utah National Guard units for their two-week training periods, and sometimes hosts Guard units from other states. “There are a lot of field artillery units out in Utah, and they’ll come out and do a lot of their live-fire exercises,” Harris said.

In addition to artillery testing, the center is also responsible for chemical and biological testing in the laboratory and on the range.

The Chemical Test Division is upgrading its test grid network to enable field-testing with real-time data collection over a wireless network.

“When you have to collect all that data manually, it’s usually days or weeks before you can go through that and make an adjustment to a test trial,” Harris said. “With this new system, we’ll be able to make that within hours or … a day and … get more valuable data … for a reduced cost and schedule.”

The division tests chemical warfare agents, nerve agents and industrial toxins, starting on a small scale first. For example, Harris said they test protective clothing against agents. “We’ll test swatches … of material. The material performs at the standards it needs to before they go to a full systems test, where they test the whole ensemble,” he explained. The division also has the capability of chamber testing objects as large as an M1 Abrams tank to evaluate them for decontamination solutions.

“We’re fully capable of testing the Department of Defense defense systems, both on the chemical and biological side of the house, with all those test capabilities we have,” Harris said.

The Life Sciences Division, where biological testing occurs, is in the final certification phase for the Whole System Live Agent Test chamber, which will enable entire pieces of detection equipment to be tested against biological aerosol agents.

“The chamber itself is a brand new capability for the Department of Defense. It’s really a brand new capability for our nation, because it’s an asset for everyone,” Douglas Andersen, chief of the Life Sciences Division, said. The division’s primary mission is detector testing, but they also conduct decontamination testing and training, he added.

The WSLAT is an ideal addition to the test center because it is large enough to contain not only whole pieces of detection equipment, but also multiple systems at once, allowing them to be compared to one another and evaluated against aerosol agents, Andersen said.

JUPITR program and the S/K Challenge

The JUPITR program, or Joint USFK Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition, is designed to enhance ability of warfighters stationed in Korea to detect and then respond to a biological attack without there being a mission impact, should such an attack occur during an Army operation, Fizer explained. The program, which is an “advanced technology demonstration,” is used to evaluate the integration of force protection, chemical and biological sensors.

“JUPITR is an exciting program because it’s going to allow an integrated defense for bases, potentially across the world,” Andersen said. “It is an array of sensors that eventually would be deployed and work in a unified way … to identify threats and help commanders in the field make decisions based on that threat.”

The S/K Challenge is an initiative within the chemical/biological defense program, Harris explained. It is an annual event, now in its second year, designated to give chemical and biological detection equipment in development a chance for early testing. Challenge participants include the Department of Defense, other federal agencies and industry partners, as well as international allies.

“To be able to have their systems … exposed to the environment to see how well they perform … it gives them the opportunity to make adjustments early in the materiel development process to ensure they can make tweaks … then, rather than when they go back for evaluation,” Harris said.

The Challenge benefits the Army in several ways, primarily through cost reduction, a result of joint testing. The Army may also be able to identify new technologies, where to improve existing technologies, or even establish partnerships with other participants to bring technology to the Soldier more quickly, Fizer said.

“So, overall, we’ll get the best capabilities that we can get for the warfighter, as far as chemical and biological detection goes,” added Capt. Michael Stewart, Joint Executive Program Office for Chemical and Biological Detection liaison officer.

This year, the Challenge will take place in the first half of June, where participants will conduct chamber testing on their equipment, Stewart said. The equipment will be placed inside either an ambient testing chamber or an active standoff chamber and exposed to chemical agents.

If testing is conducted outside, non-harmful simulants are used to mimic the same physical characteristics of the agent, Harris explained.

Dugway’s thorough testing protocols and exclusivity — there’s no other major chemical and biological agent testing facility in the Department of Defense — make it unique, Fizer said. The proving ground has been in operation since 1942 and is continually evolving with the threats facing the nation.

“Dugway Proving Ground continues to evolve and adapt to provide answers to not just our warfighters, but our emergency responders,” Fizer continued, “so that if it’s an anthrax release in a forward operating area, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, or it’s an anthrax release here in the U.S. (at) a sporting even such as the Super Bowl … we’re going to provide technology that has been validated all the way from the laboratory to the field.”