A CUT ABOVE THE REST
industry establishes or ramps up produc- tion to meet larger volume requirements,” he said. “At the end of the day, the goal is not necessarily about buying items. It’s about buying readiness and capability to maintain it.”
ROOTS Pine Bluff Arsenal—a government-owned, government-operated installation—is the only active Army installation in the state of Arkansas, established in 1941 by the War Department (now DOD) to manu- facture and assemble incendiary munitions to support WWII efforts.
Pine Bluff reports to Joint Munitions Command, the logistics integrator for life- cycle management of ammunition and is a major subordinate command of Army Materiel Command (AMC).
Te genesis for textile manufacturing at Pine Bluff began with recurring issues at the Joint Project Manager for CBRN Protection. At that time, no manufacturing capability existed within the government for the low- and full-rate production of CBRN textiles. A few of the chemical- and biological-based textile commodities within JPM CBRN Protection’s portfolio
had very low demand from the joint services, and the existing manufacturers of those commodities no longer found it financially viable to maintain their production lines.
In order to mitigate perpetual back- order status, the program manager asked whether Pine Bluff would be interested in establishing textile manufacturing capa- bilities to produce these low-requirement commodities.
In October 2015, the initial groundwork and research began for finding industrial sewing training sources for the arsenal’s workforce, including the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff ’s Department of Human Sciences - Merchandising, Textiles and Design, as well as various academic institutes and industrial oper- ations within the state.
Te first textile item produced at Pine Bluff was the neck dam, which is a garment made with a carbon-impregnated fabric that provides protection against CBRN contaminants, and issued to wearers of face seal-type masks to increase protec- tion at the mask-garment interface. Tese items are used with the Joint Protective
PINE BLUFF
Established in the early days of World War II, Pine Bluff Arsenal has evolved over the years, and an article in Army AL&T spurred a new phase in the installation’s history.
Aircrew Ensemble, which is a lightweight, chem-bio-protective coverall that resem- bles a standard flight suit.
In the years following the initial start up, DOD has invested significant time and resources at Pine Bluff to improve the textile manufacturing processes there. JPM CBRN Protection worked with Pine Bluff and experts in textile design and manufacturing from the Naval Clothing and Textiles Research Facility and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Soldier Center
UNDER WRAPS
The underside of a Chemical Protective Patient Wrap is shown during production. (Photo by Hugh Morgan, Pine Bluff Arsenal)
52
Army AL&T Magazine
Summer 2022
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