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Soldiers Get Glimpse into Base Camps of the Future

From the Army News Service:

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Lt. Col. Ross Poppenberger, Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems, left, speaks with Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, about energy-efficient Rigid Wall Camps, on Tuesday during the “Base Camp Resource and Energy Efficiency Day” at the Army Base Camp Integration Laboratory at Fort Devens, Mass.

Lt. Col. Ross Poppenberger, Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems, left, speaks with Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, about energy-efficient Rigid Wall Camps, on Tuesday during the “Base Camp Resource and Energy Efficiency Day” at the Army Base Camp Integration Laboratory at Fort Devens, Mass. (Photo by David Kamm, Army News Service)

Innovations meant to improve Soldiers’ quality of life during deployments — while saving lives, fuel, water and money — were on display this week at the Army Base Camp Integration Laboratory at Fort Devens, Mass.

The Army Base Camp Integration Laboratory, or BCIL, hosted its second annual “Base Camp Resource and Energy Efficiency Day.” Situated on 10 acres at Fort Devens, the laboratory features two “Force Provider” 150-person base camps. One contains standard technologies; the other offers a glimpse into the Army’s energy future.

Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, and Lt. Gen. Raymond V. Mason, Army deputy chief of staff, Logistics, were among those attending the event. They were briefed about shelters, power management, energy storage, waste disposal and waste-to-energy systems, alternative energy, micro-grids, energy-efficient structures, rigid-wall camps, and fuel-fired kitchens.

“It’s just great to see the strides that we’re making, the systems that we’re testing,” Hammack said. “The team here is doing a fantastic job finding new technologies, testing them, getting modifications made, and determining the resiliency of the systems prior to deploying them with our Soldiers.”

More than 12,000 service members training at Fort Devens rotate annually through the BCIL, providing invaluable user input about systems being developed here, with the ultimate goal of trimming fuel and water usage on base camps by 50 percent. Such innovations as micro-grids, solar shades, shelter liners and shower water reuse systems have already brought that goal closer to reality.

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