Marines from the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) fellows program visited Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head EOD Technology Division (NSWC IHEODTD) in an effort to initiate a new partnership between IHEODTD and MCWL Oct. 25. The Marines visited the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation departments and were introduced to current operations.
The fellows program incorporates a cadre of 20 Marines selected from different operational areas of expertise to complete a three to six month tour in the national capital region. Program selection and administration will be conducted by the MCWL Field Testing Branch (FTB) and will be integrated with the Naval Research and Engineering Enterprise (NRDE).
The mission of the MCWL is to identify future challenges and opportunities, develop warfighting concepts, and comprehensively explore options in order to inform the combat development process to meet the challenges of the future operating environment.
According to Lt. Col. Daniel Schmitt, MCWL-FTB head, experiment division, Marines enrolled in the program will gain understanding of the problems engineers and scientists encounter, and help close the communications gap from the inventor to user.
“This partnership will streamline technology development by providing insight by the customer, the warfighter in every aspect of the basic science that will address their concerns and needs,” said Jorge Castellanos, Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, diagnostics branch scientist. “It is exciting that we will receive our servicemen as active participants in the development phase of this very new technology program at IHEODTD.”
Castellanos and his team are developing the science behind the printing of energetics and establishing safety measures needed for additive manufacturing technology to transition as a capability for the Department of Defense. Their goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of emerging additive manufacturing technologies for energetics applications and transitioning to the warfighter.
“I envision that operational needs identified by Marines in the field will guide the scope of the collaborative projects that will be worked on,” Castellanos said. “These Marines will definitely influence the materials, design concepts, printer hardware and software that will be added to increase our capabilities at IHEODTD.”
The weapons and technologies of future battlefields will be derived from first hand experiences of modern warfighters.
“We are the ‘high beams of the Corps.’ We work to understand the future operating environment,” Schmitt said. “More and more, Marines are innovators and creators of capabilities at the low tactical end. They have access to ever changing technology that they creatively employ to create localized dilemmas that often have strategic effect on the battlefield. IHEODTD is a key component of our institutional creation and fielding enterprise.”