NEW CAPABILITIES AND CONCEPTS
“That’s pretty amazing, that progress that was made in three years to go from basically a sketch to seeing the NBCRV SSU perform.”
HELP FROM ROBOTIC FRIENDS For the radiological source mission demonstration, instead of having a warfighter don protective equipment, carry multi- ple sensors and try to get near a potential radiological threat (in this case, a simulated threat), operators from within an NBCRV used an Xbox controller to drive a Grizzly UGV with a mounted enhanced RADIAC (Radiation Detection, Indica- tion and Computation) long-range imaging network applique (MERLIN-A) and a MERLIN imager (MERLIN-I) to get closer to the reported radiological threat. Te MERLIN-A is used for standoff detection and provides directionality and relative source location, while the MERLIN-I is used to detect, identify, locate and image radiological hazards. Using a Grizzly UGV instead of a warfighter to get a sensor dangerously closer to a hazard benefits the warfighter’s health and also improves the fidelity of informa- tion gathered, further increasing mission success.
“For the MERLIN-I, the speed at which the image builds is dependent on the size and strength of the source, so the closer you are to it and the stronger the source, the better the image and the faster it comes,” said Nicole Goetze, the lead systems engineer for the NBCRV.
Once the potential radiological source was detected, the surveyor submitted a report to the joint battle command platform, gener- ating a geo-marker for the suspected source location. After capturing the area of highest concentration, the MERLIN-A sensor demonstrated how it notified the MERLIN-I of a more precise location where it should focus. Te MERLIN-I scanned the area and captured an image of the “hottest spot,” and the surveyor submitted a follow-on report with confirmed radio- logical source information that was also disseminated to higher command via the joint battle command platform.
TALENTS OF THE TALON
The TALON is strapped with several different CBRN detectors and can be driven into contaminated environments without putting Soldiers in harm’s way. The claw can pick up objects and even open doors.
To drive home the point that these threats are not abstract, and to reinforce the need for the capability set, the planners showed footage from just two months earlier of a Ukrainian nuclear plant under attack by Russian forces, as well as video from recent U.N. Security Council meetings about biological weapons in between the day’s demonstrations.
THE BIRD SAVES LIVES Te biological mission demonstration began with an aerosolized, simulated biological agent being sprayed as an anomaly cloud far from a compact standoff detection system. Te system detects, tracks and maps aerosol clouds and provides waypoint location. After the system demonstrated that it detected and cloud-mapped the biological threat, the surveyor within the NBCRV launched
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