Big Payoff for New Scale
A new scale being tested by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) could end up giving units a little extra time to train just before rapid deployments – in addition to being a big safety boost.
Enough new systems and technologies with battlefield applications are being developed that it’s pretty easy to dismiss a new way to weigh vehicles as a relatively low priority development (and not all too sexy). But it can matter more than you think.
The latest Weigh-in-Motion scale is meant to improve the process for preparing vehicles for airload, as it “automatically identifies the equipment, determines the individual axle weights, distance between axles, total vehicle weight, profile and center of balance.†It sounds boring, but this is the crucial data that has to be identified to safely load vehicles on cargo planes for transport, and any slight change in the way equipment is loaded on a vehicle means recalculating everything. Since the information is currently calculated in a very low-tech manner by NCOs and officers with minimal training in how to do so (I used to be one), this step in deployment-prep is often done well in advance and the prepared vehicles (and materiel on them) are then quarantined.
Vehicle quarantines aren't a big deal for regularly-scheduled deployments. But if you’ve just been given the warning order for a contingency deployment -- at a time when you would otherwise be training -- you want to spend as much time practicing with your gear as possible before you go. That's not possible with quarantined trucks. Instead, you have to spend months trying to beg, borrow and steal vehicles and equipment to train with, since your stuff is locked up on the flightline. (A situation my battalion found itself in for a few months in the winter of 2002-2003.) A reliable, simplified means of preparing vehicles for airload could someday insert a little more flexibility into that timeline and give units a few extra weeks of quality training.
This training is, of course, a possible extra benefit of the new system. The direct and bankable benefit is equipment that is prepared more accurately. Airload planning requires a lot of precision to be done safely, and every extra degree of accuracy makes the trip that much safer for the airmen and soldiers sharing the plane with the equipment. (Possibly avoiding, for example, the June 2002 C-130 crash in Afghanistan that was blamed on a load that wasn’t properly prepared.) ORNL estimates that current means of computing the data can often be off by 14% or more. The new system consistently performs without any measurable errors at all.
There’s room for skepticism, since Oak Ridge has been talking about this for more than 6 years. But it’s now moved from the lab to testing at the Transportation Center at Fort Eustis and rapid deployment posts like Fort Bragg and Fort Drum, so we’ll get to see how it does in action.
-- Matthew Tompkins
Regarding your comment that people are preparing these vehicles with minimal training suggests that minimal training is insufficient, or difficult.
While the current system used to aiflift units is relatively complex because it usually involves several organizations and Services, I disagree with your comment or representation that the load is left completely to the Army (ADAG) that marshals the equipment.
There's a whole litney of professionals that are involved in this process, and their training isn't minimal - it's extensive. While the Army may be preparing their vehicles to store on the flightline (I find it extremely hard to believe that you store/quarantine your equipment for months prior to deployment), Army brigades and units rarely deploy/redeploy without a TRANSCOM/AMC ALCE in-place to coord. the lift, JI the equipment, and ensure the loads are correctly configured. And there's much more to moving vehicles than just dimensions and weights...there's also hazards that must be properly identified (i.e. vehicle batteries), fuel levels, tire pressures, tongues, dual-axles, shoring, etc. The ALCE ensures all of these requirements are fulfilled and the load is properly measured, weighed, HAZDEC'd, and load-planned even before the aircraft arrives. Finally, when the aircraft shows up, there's at least one Aircraft Loadmaster that has the final say and takes responsibility for the load. He too must review and ensure the weights/dimensions/center of balance/load placement is correct prior to departure. Factors that influence that decision also are flying time, fuel load, aircraft station limitations/capacity, number of passengers, etc.
I used to be an aircraft loadmaster; a combat logistician; and recently worked for a gov. contractor that developed a system for TRANSCOM that provided exactly what you're describing here. AMC and TRANSCOM have been toying with similar systems for at least 10 years that I'm aware of. It's not so much weighing and measuring this "stuff", but it's automating the data and integraing the new data with various DoD legacy and current systems (like JOPES, DCAPES, GATES and others) to import/export data and provide near-real-time visibility of what's moving and what's ready to move, as well as accountability of what is actually being deployed (vs. a standardized package). Operational Logistics happens in 2 directions most of the time, and airlift isn't free nor is it cheap. This is just one "piece" of the system and to obtain the real-time visibility that TRANSCOM and DoD wants, and it will take a combination of this and RFID and Bar Codes and more training and coordination, particularly now that Guard and Reserve forces are filling at least 50% of the force. And while you focused on airlift --- most of the big-stuff travels via ship, which again, makes your article misleading.
This isn't a new idea. Perhaps ORNL's system will work and enhance TRANSCOM's way of doing business? I guess we'll all have to wait and see.
Posted by: Thoms Murphy at April 19, 2006 9:17 PM