U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) visited and
toured Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal
Technology Division (NSWC IHEODTD), Oct. 5.
The senator first met with NSWC IHEODTD Commanding
Officer Capt. Vincent Martinez and Technical Director Ashley Johnson for
organizational development updates - such as the division's recent designation
as a Center for Industrial and Technical Excellence activity - before touring
the Advanced Energetics Research Laboratory to discuss how NSWC IHEODTD
supports the warfighter.
"The men and women of Indian Head bring loyalty,
honor, hard work and patriotism, true American values, to the job,"
Senator Mikulski said. "I'm here at Indian Head on my Maryland Jobs Tour
to discuss my fight for jobs, jobs, jobs and the work being done to keep us
safe over here while protecting our troops over there. I'm also so pleased to
see first-hand the cutting-edge work being done day in and day out to keep our
nation safer and Maryland's economy stronger. Every day and in every way, they
provide our fighting troops in uniform with the tools they need to keep us
safe. I will continue to fight for the extraordinary workforce at Indian Head
and their mission critical to our national security."
At the Advanced Energetics Research Laboratory, Mikulski
met with propulsion engineer and program lead Dr. Greg Young to learn about his
team's work on hybrid rocket propulsion. Young and senior materials scientist
Dr. Vasant Joshi both received the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research,
Development, and Acquisition), Dr. Delores M. Etter Awards for Top Scientists
and Engineers earlier this year for their development of a hybrid rocket fuel
that performs as well as solid rockets while creating a safer system that is
throttleable, and can also be stopped and restarted in flight.
Mikulski was also briefed on synthesis and solution
processing of inorganic materials. This
work is focused on developing low-cost methods to produce metal and
semiconductor materials on substrates of interest, for a variety of
applications including energy harvesting, sensors, and energetics.
The Senator also saw a brief on the on the Agent Defeat
program funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The command is helping
to develop and test at the small-scale, new energetic formulations to
neutralize biological warfare agents. This is an important effort in advancing
counter weapons of mass destruction capabilities.
"We appreciate Senator Mikulski taking time out of
her busy schedule to visit NSWC IHEODTD, so that we could show her how the
Command is supporting the warfighter and making energetics and ordnance fly
farther, hit harder and save lives," said Ashley Johnson, NSWC IHEODTD
Technical Director.
NSWC IHEODTD - a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems
Command and part of the Navy's Science and Engineering Enterprise - is a leader
in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The division focuses on energetics
and ordnance research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support and
disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access,
identify, render safe, recover, exploit, and dispose of explosive ordnance
threats.