ESC fields critical weather system to Southwest Asia for evaluations

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, MASS. --  The Electronic Systems Center recently fielded a fifth Portable Doppler Radar system to deployed weather operators in Southwest Asia for initial operational evaluations.

"This system is critical because it helps protect our deployed personnel and equipment," said Geoffrey Lum, Weather Systems Branch chief.

Produced by LaPoint-Blase Industries (EWR) of St. Louis, Mo., the system provides an improved capability for warfighters with its Doppler ability.

"Previous systems were able to see there was a storm," said Bill Drury, PDR deputy program manager. "This system [not only does that, but] cuts into the weather cell and allows the operator to detect and track wind shear, tornadic activity ... severe storm conditions."

This ability is crucial for flight operations and ground combat operations.

Weather operators need to have this information to be able to forecast accurately and the Air Force weather community took a keen interest in the project as they felt the Doppler capability was a needed enhancement, according to Col. Jimmie Schuman, Aerospace Management Systems Division senior materiel leader.

"They took a day-to-day interest in the system," he said.

While many personnel think of Doppler radar as the huge fixed radars where your local TV news forecaster gets his information from, warfighters were interested in another component, easy transportability.

The system can be moved on one pallet in a C-130 and be set up by three personnel.

"Because of its portability, the technical experts in the AOR [area of responsibility] have a chance to examine the system, verifying everything is working okay before it gets moved to a location downrange where those personnel may not be experts," said 1st Lt. Sarah Curtis, PDR program manager.

Although the fielded system is currently set up in a stand-alone capacity, it will soon be linked to the Global Information Grid, or GIG. Once it has that connectivity, even more capabilities will be available to the warfighter.

"Once it is connected to the GIG, it will begin transmitting real-time weather data back to Operational Weather Squadrons, units responsible for providing weather products for a specific area of operations," said Lieutenant Curtis.

With this remote capability, a user can be anywhere in the world and be able to receive the data as long as they have the correct interface.

"If you are doing mission planning, flight planning or getting ready to deploy forces, you'll have that [weather] data [you need]," said Mr. Lum.

Another benefit of being connected to the GIG is that it also can reduce the maintenance footprint.

"We now have the ability to do maintenance remotely through the GIG," said Lieutenant Curtis. "The contractor from St. Louis can directly do maintenance in Southwest Asia. This simplifies the process for the user and also can reduce the number of personnel needed to be deployed."

Getting to this point couldn't have happened without cooperation between the government team and the contractor, Mr. Lum emphasized.

The company cared about the product and wanted the technology on the battlefield so the warfighter could reap its benefits, he said, while the ESC team helped the small contractor flourish in an environment they were not familiar with - working with the military.

"This has been a good small business and DoD partnership," said Mr. Lum. "A small ESC team worked with a small company to produce a great product for the warfighter. Now that product is in theater and doing what it's supposed to do."