Posts Tagged ‘WSMR’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

Technology is increasingly more common in the battlefield while the future of government funding is becoming more unknown, said White Sands Missile Range’s new Commander Col. John Ferrari.

Speaking at the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce annual military update luncheon Thursday, Dec. 15, Ferrari said the range’s people are working to keep the range a key player in conducting tests of the new technology while becoming a more efficient military installation.

Ferrari, who became the range’s commander Aug. 18, said it’s all the skilled and creative people who will be making the range successful in meeting the new objectives and roles. He also acknowledged the strong support the range gets from the local population. “In the end, it’s all about people,” Ferrari said. “It’s the people of New Mexico and the people of this community that allow us to complete our national security mission.”

Along with WSMR, neighboring Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo and Fort Bliss in El Paso are seeing their missions change and expand. “We’re going to change, because we have to change, because the world around us is changing, too,” he said. High-tech testing will continue to be WSMR’s main mission, he said, and so the base as an organization is looking for ways it can continue to offer value and find new funding. At its current level of operations, he said, WSMR’s contribution to the local economy is estimated to be worth about $1.8 million a day.

NewTec, a company that provides technical support to the range, alone employs about 520 people, said Charles Garcia, company president and CEO. Personnel at WSMR also provide important analysis for the government, especially in the area of countering attacks and protecting systems and weapons from the effects of attacks, he said. That work includes testing building construction and materials to be able to withstand an explosion or finding new methods to detect bombs, he said.

The base has a strong medical community for the more than 900 employees, Ferrari said, who are not only there for the soldiers and the families stationed at the base, but they play a key role in occupational safety along with caring for those who may get injured in testing activities. He said the medical personnel also provide services to local veterans. The range is home to the Navy’s only commissioned naval vessel on land for testing systems before they actually go to sea, he said.

One of the most recent and significant changes for the base has been the addition of the 2nd Engineers Battalion, most of whom have just come back from Afghanistan. Members of the battalion have the dangerous job in war to find and disable or contain improvised explosive devices. Ferrari remarked that most of the battalion is made up of young soldiers who volunteered for the service knowing they would certainly go to war and perform a hazardous job. They do that dangerous work because they trust the technology and engineering, he said.

“We’re creating those systems that they’re entrusting their lives with,” Ferrari said The main base covers 3,200 square miles of land, but “that’s not even enough to do what we do” he said, so a few times a year, the range must ask surrounding ranchers for their help when the testing requires 5,000 square miles. “We’re even doing tests up in Cloudcroft,” Ferrari said. “That’s why we appreciate the graciousness of the people of New Mexico.”

Where much of the past testing has been on missile systems, much of the future testing will be on the reliability of electronic technology in the field and protecting them from being jammed or disabled, Ferrari said. That also includes communications, which is critical to systems such as GPS, he said.

WSMR has a tradition of excellence it must maintain as it adjusts to the changing “fiscal environment,” he said. “We have to protect that brand image,” Ferrari said “We do things here that can’t be done anyplace else, anywhere.”

Besides improving general efficiency, WSMR is training existing employees to be less specialized, he said. The challenge, he said, is to break the military paradigm of caring too much about organizational structure and focusing on accomplishing the mission with the workforce on-hand. That makes the quality of local education even more critical, he said. “We’ll get through this difficult financial environment together, because we will not get through this separate from each other,” Ferrari said.

Philip Bond, who leads the strategic planning effort at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), will be the featured speaker at the upcoming June luncheon meeting of the High Tech Consortium. The meeting will be held on Friday June 17th 2011 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Sunset Grill at Sonoma Ranch Golf Course.

White Sands Missile Range is home to the US Army’s premier test center that provides services to the Department of Defense and others top quality “experimentation, test, research, assessment, development, and training in support of the Nation at war, according to the WSMR official website.”  Successful support of these customers requires strategic planning that focuses on understanding who the customers are, what they need and how to best provide service.  Mr. Bond will present an overview of some of the initiatives currently being conducted at WSMR and will try to answer questions about the skills and requirements that are needed from the high  tech community in southern New Mexico.  Projects that he will discuss include the Joint Urban Testing Capability, Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS), energy scavenging, and renewable/alternative energy initiatives.

Mr. Bond is a native of Clovis, NM and has worked at WSMR since 2007.  He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1982 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Basic Science Interdisciplinary. He was commissioned in the Field Artillery and served in Europe and Honduras. When he returned from overseas, he earned a Master’s Degree in Operations Research/Systems Analysis from Kansas State University. He left active duty in 1992 and worked for Ford Motor Company as a Production Supervisor, Industrial Engineer, Manufacturing Efficiency Specialist, and Production Engineering Manager. Phil returned for Retired Reserve status to serve in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He moved to Las Cruces in 2006 and has worked at White Sands since 2007.

For more information contact Richard Majestic, rmajestic@msn.com or (575) 521-0018.

Release courtesy of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce

Las Cruces, NM, May 30, 2011 – Beginning on Monday, June 26, the United States Army will begin large-scale testing of 30 different systems and networks at White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss. The Network Integration Evaluation (NIE), as it is known, will bring together 3,800 soldiers from Fort Bliss’ 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division with 2,000 soldiers, government employees and contract personnel from WSMR, Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and other installations.

Army agencies will test and evaluate the 30 different systems while the soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division use the systems in various tactical scenarios throughout WSMR and Fort Bliss. The testing operations will take place 24 hours per day Monday through Friday each week. During the weekend, Fort Bliss soldiers will return home, however, the majority of the 2,000 testers and evaluators will remain in area hotels.

Because of the influx of military and contract personnel, the communities of Las Cruces, El Paso and Alamogordo can expect increased business in area hotels, rental car companies, restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores, as well as an increase in business to businesses such as FedEx Office and copy centers around the WSMR area. The testing and evaluation will also cause an increase in military vehicle traffic on the roads between WSMR and Fort Bliss and an increase in regular vehicle traffic around the WSMR entrance points and Las Cruces.

The NIE will run through July 15. The Department of Defense plans to host the NIE on a semi-annual basis in the future. For more information about the NIE, contact the WSMR Public Affairs Office at 678-1134.

Release courtesy of NMSU News Center

Writer: Justin Bannister, 575-646-5981, jbannist@nmsu.edu

Contact: Dawn Hommer, 575-646-5213, dhommer@nmsu.edu

New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center has agreed to work with White Sands Missile Range to pursue potential business development opportunities in the fields of national security, space and aerospace, alternative energy initiatives and technologies with both military and civilian applications.

“This agreement between NMSU and White Sands Missile Range will not only allow collaboration between two of the largest economic development engines in Southern New Mexico, but also establish the groundwork for new and exciting economic development opportunities,” said Garrey Carruthers, NMSU’s vice president for economic development and dean of the College of Business.

The memorandum of understanding will help the Arrowhead Center and WSMR work in concert in pursuit of potential business development opportunities. The goal is to complement assets, expertise and capabilities of both entities. The collaboration will support the Arrowhead Center’s mission of economic development and WSMR’s mission of research, development, testing and evaluation.

The Arrowhead Center specializes in accelerating economic development within New Mexico, providing enhanced directed learning experiences for students and diversifying the funding base for NMSU. Since its inception in 2004, the Arrowhead Center has completed more than 200 business research projects involving more than 300 graduate and undergraduate students.

NMSU and WSMR have informally worked together for the past few years. This move allows that relationship to continue more effectively.

Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News

By Steve Ramirez

A standing ovation for Don Reed, manager of the Orion Flight Test Office, and the word “flawless” summed up the feelings of Thursday’s successful test of Orion’s pad abort system, at White Sands Missile Range.

The 95-second launch went off without a hitch as a prototype of Orion’s crew capsule lifted off at exactly 7 a.m., flew to an altitude of 6,090 feet, rolled over on cue, and floated back to WSMR’s desert floor at a rate of 24 feet per second. Many of the approximately 1,100 people who have worked on the project for four years hugged each other, applauded and shouted encouragement, or shook hands as their efforts proved successful for technology never tested before.

“This truly talented team showed we can do it,” said Doug Cooke, manager of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, referring to NASA, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences Corp., Alliant Techsystems, Aerojet, Honeywell, and WSMR employees who collaborated on the launch. “It was a flawless flight, and it looked great.”

A smiling Reed said the launch abort system didn’t perform exactly as it should have – it was better. The 55.5-foot-tall launch abort vehicle and crew module mock-up reached a speed of about 445 mph in three seconds. Aboard the crew capsule were 692 sensors that will provide key data to engineers as further development of the spacecraft and its launch safety system continues.

“This is a very complex system, but it all came together,” Reed said. “The performance was outstanding.”