Picatinny engineers win Army's top research award

By Audra Calloway, Picatinny Public AffairsJanuary 9, 2015

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1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Sgt. Paul Rava, a combat medic with 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and a native of Huntington Beach, Calif., runs through smoke he used to conceal his movement over an obstacle during E... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. (Dec. 4, 2014) -- Seventeen Picatinny Arsenal scientists and engineers have won the Army's top award for science and technology.

The Army presents the Research and Development Achievement Award to a select group of scientists and engineers whose outstanding achievements have "significantly advanced capabilities and contributed to the national defense." The Picatinny awardees represent five different R&D programs.

"Each year these awards recognize those scientists and engineers who have made a significant contribution to advance the Army's technical capability," said John Hedderich, III, acting director of Picatinny's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, or ARDEC.

"Our mission at Picatinny is to take care of our service members through the technology we develop and manage," Hedderich said. "Every innovation, advancement and improvement is an opportunity to save Soldiers lives."

Approximately one percent of all eligible Army scientists and engineers (S&Es) receive the awards each year.

"These S&E (science and engineering) personnel have distinguished themselves through their proven scientific and technical excellence or leadership," according to a Nov. 5, memo by Mary Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology, announcing the award winners.

WINNNERS

Dr. Jared D. Moretti, Dr. Jesse J. Sabatini, Dr. Anthony P. Shaw, Robert Gilbert, Jr, and Gary Chen received the award for their work developing a more environmentally-friendly yellow smoke formulation for the M194 hand held signal. Sabatini now works for the Army Research Laboratory.

Gordon Cooke, Robert DeMarco, Michael Dokachev, Marc Federico, Elizabeth Mezzacappa, and Dana Perriello were recognized for their work on analysis of gunner protection kit configurations.

The team created the Virtual Employment Test Bed (VETB), a low-cost simulator that measures and analyzes how well systems perform in the hands of experienced Soldiers in order to improve the technology. In his former position as an ARDEC Military Deputy, Lt. Col. John Thane, now at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, also contributed to the project.

Ernest L. Baker, Nausheen Al-Shehab, and David G. Pfau were honored for the development of a new, insensitive munitions technology called composite particle impact mitigation sleeves (C-PIMS), which helps to prevent anti-armor warheads from exploding if shot at or hit by shrapnel or a roadside bomb. Nicholas Peterson and Matthew Triplett of the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center were also recognized for this project.

Daniel L. Cler was recognized for his research on suppressor technology for military automatic weapons and light machine guns. Suppressor technology reduces the sound emitted from a firing gun, which makes the service member harder to detect by the enemy.

Contributing to this project were John Bailey, U.S. Special Operations Command, Dr. James Klett, Department of Energy/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Dr. William C. Moss, Department of Energy/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Andy Anderson, Department of Energy/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Thomas Puckett, Army Research Laboratory.

Dr. Jesse J. Sabatini and Eric A. Latalladi were honored for development of barium-free M159 white star illuminant.

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The Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.

RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness--technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment--to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.

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