UH lab receives explosive research contract

UH lab receives explosive research contract

By: Kris DeRego

Posted: 12/3/08

University of Hawai’i scientists are developing a new method for detecting improvised explosive devices, thanks to a lucrative grant awarded to the college’s Applied Research Laboratory.

The 18-month contract, sponsored by the U.S. Army, allocates $980,334 for researching the use of multiple optical methods to detect the chemical signature of improvised explosive devices prior to detonation. Roadside bombs are the leading cause of death for American troops serving in Iraq, triggering approximately 70 percent of the war’s 4,207 casualties, according to Pentagon estimates.

“IEDs have taken a heavy toll on both soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Jim Gaines, UH vice president for research. “Having a reliable method of standoff detection would provide much greater safety for both civilians and military personnel.”

Optical remote sensing is favored as a way to detect chemical signatures in water and the atmosphere. Until recently, however, optical technology suffered from high operational costs and poor performance in environments with impaired visibility.

“Optical methods have proven problematic in the past,” said Benjamin Dunley, a weapons development consultant for Lockheed Martin. “Recent advancements in the fiber optics industry have reduced costs, though, and made creative innovations, like signature-based radiation scanning, more feasible for defense contractors.”

Seven UH scientists will partner with investigators from Arkansas State and Florida A&M universities to conduct the explosives detection studies, said university officials, who emphasized that no explosive materials will be employed by researchers or stored at campus facilities during the experiments.

The contract is the second task order awarded to the Navy-affiliated Applied Research Laboratory, which was established in 2007 to perform basic national defense research. In September, the laboratory received $850,000 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to examine the impact of ecological variations upon discarded munitions at Ordnance Reef off the Wai’anae coast.

UH administrators hope that successful completion of both task orders will initiate funding for similar projects in the future.

“This could be the first in a sequence of task orders if the initial studies prove interesting,” Gaines said. “That could, in turn, enhance the university’s budget and the local economy.”

The Department of Defense restricted total research subsidies to $26.2 million and renounced classified research for the first three years of the Applied Research Laboratory’s existence. If the pace of contracted research remains steady, the Naval laboratory should reach its $26 million target by 2011.

Not everyone agrees that the explosives detection contract is beneficial to UH, however, despite revenue shortfalls resulting from budget cuts and sharp enrollment declines at most UH campuses, including UH Manoa. Some critics feel that the research grant violates the core academic values associated with higher education.

“This IED detection task order is aimed at improving the U.S. military’s ability to sustain its occupation of other people’s countries,” said Kyle Kajihiro, program director for the American Friends Service Committee. “This is not the mission that UH should serve.”

According to Kajihiro, university scientists could be contracted to perform military research without the Applied Research Laboratory.

“Under normal circumstances, the university would have to compete for money,” said Kajihiro. “The Naval laboratory allows the military’s pork pipeline to flow directly from congressional earmarks to the university, giving military-linked researchers their own private ATM.”

University officials maintain that the benefits of the contract extend beyond the college’s finances, however, and address the military’s need for enhanced protection.

“The research is consistent with the university’s mission of solving society’s problems,” said Gregg Takayama, UH director of community and government relations. “The primary beneficiary will not be UH Manoa, but the civilians and military personnel who regularly face injury and death from hidden explosive devices.”

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