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| Most Recent Reports | | Upcoming Activities | | | BAST Brochure in PDF
| | | | Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications (2011)
This report explores the current theoretical and experimental understanding of the key issues surrounding protection materials, identifies the major challenges and technical gaps for developing the future generation of lightweight protection materials, and recommends a path forward for their development. It examines multiscale shockwave energy transfer mechanisms and experimental approaches for their characterization over short timescales, as well as multiscale modeling techniques to predict mechanisms for dissipating energy. The report also considers exemplary threats and design philosophy for the three key applications of armor systems: (1) personnel protection, including body armor and helmets, (2) vehicle armor, and (3) transparent armor. The committee recommends that the Department of Defense (DoD) establish a defense initiative for protection materials by design (PMD), with associated funding lines for basic and applied research. The PMD initiative should include a combination of computational, experimental, and materials testing, characterization, and processing research conducted by government, industry, and academia.
| | February 29-March 2, 2012 | | Assessment of Approaches for Using Process Safety Metrics at the Blue Grass and Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plants (2011)
The Department of Defense, through the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, is currently in the process of constructing two full-scale pilot plants at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky to destroy the last two remaining inventories of chemical weapons in the U.S. stockpile. Unlike their predecessors, these facilities will use neutralization technologies to destroy agents contained within rockets, projectiles, and mortar rounds, requiring the use of specially designed equipment. Concern about potential problems associated with using this "first-of-a-kind" equipment, and the need to ensure that plant operations adhere to congressional mandates calling for the maximum protection of workers, the public, and the environment, led the Program Manager for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives to request that the National Research Council undertake a study to guide the development and application of process safety metrics for the Pueblo and Blue Grass facilities.
| | | | Review of Closure Plans for the Baseline Incineration Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities (2010) This book responds to a request by the director of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) for the National Research Council to examine and evaluate the ongoing planning for closure of the four currently operational baseline incineration chemical agent disposal facilities and the closure of a related testing facility. The book evaluates the closure planning process as well as some aspects of closure operations that are taking place while the facilities are still disposing of agent. These facilities are located in Anniston, Alabama; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Tooele, Utah. Although the facilities all use the same technology and are in many ways identical, each has a particular set of challenges. | | | | Review of the Design of the Dynasafe Static Detonation Chamber (SDC) System for the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (2010-Letter Report) The Army is in the process of destroying projectiles and mortars containing mustard agent at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (ANCDF), Alabama. Rather than exposing the workers to the additional risk of manually disassembling defective munitions, the Army will use an explosive detonation technology (EDT) to destroy the munitions without disassembling them. The particular EDT system that the Army plans to use is a static detonation chamber (SDC) system manufactured by the Swedish company, Dynasafe AB.
| | | | Testing of Body Armor Materials for Use by the U.S. Army--Phase II (2010-Letter Report) The National Research Council of the National Academies established a study to assess the methodologies used by the U.S. Army for the testing of body armor. This Phase II report is focused on the behavior of ballistic clay and on other issues
relating to the test process that were raised in Phase I of the study. More detailed
evaluations of the array of issues surrounding body armor testing, both present and
future, will be presented in the final Phase III report. | | |
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