ECBC to reduce costs, increase efficiencies in the nation’s chemical-biological defense sector

Officials from the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD) and the Army Material Command (AMC) recently called on the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) to provide assistance to increase efficiencies and reduce costs in the nation’s chemical-biological defense sector.

“Chemical and biological defense is a niche commodity area in the Department of Defense, and takes an enterprise to sustain,” ECBC’s Director of Engineering Michael Abaie said. “All of us must come together, collaborate, put our strengths and talents to their best use, and do everything we can to ensure the readiness of our war fighters.”

One suggestion posed by ECBC was to establish a single organization to support all chemical-biological defense products under the JPEO-CBD, including detectors, protective masks, and decontamination equipment. The U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command would also assist JPEO-CBD in logistics management and forecasting product demands.

The center also suggested strengthening the organic industrial base of the chemical-biological defense sector by enhancing production of depot operations at the U.S. Army’s Pine Bluff Arsenal.

In addition to the suggestions, senior officials in the Department of Defense asked ECBC’s Engineering Directorate to provide product testing, design and engineering expertise to support the Pine Bluff Arsenal’s biological defense products.

“We are advocating ECBC’s role as a key enabler of these strategies,” Lowry Brooks, ECBC’s associate director for engineering, said. “We can help Pine Bluff Arsenal be successful and do what they do best by partnering with them and having us do what we do best―commodity expertise, design, test, rapid prototyping and sustainment.”