Racing Team, Army Partnership Proves Winning Combo

By Merv Brokke, AMRDEC Public AffairsMay 21, 2010

PICTURE THIS
From left, Tom Erickson, chief, Reliability, Availability and Maintainability Engineering & System Assessment Division; Patti Martin, director, Engineering Directorate; and Kris Walker, RAM & SA team lead/Attack & Unmanned Aerial Systems, display a p... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- A little over a year after Jack Roush Sr., team owner and CEO of Roush-Fenway Racing, visited with the Soldiers, scientists, engineers and Mustang owners of Redstone Arsenal, he achieved a milestone on the racetrack - his 400th all-time victory in road racing and NASCAR combined - with his partners Team ED right by his side. Side doors that is.

During their win at the Homestead 200 (Grand Sport Class) at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 6, Jack Roush Jr. and co-driver Billy Johnson drove the No. 61 Roush Performance Products Ford Mustang GT adorned with Team ED's logo -- partners in more than racing and winning but also supporting the war fighter.

The Roush partnership with the Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability Engineering & System Assessment Division of the Engineering Directorate began in fall 2003 when Gen. Paul Kern, then commander of the Army Materiel Command, directed the leveraging of racing technologies for use in the Army.

"General Kern learned of our qualification efforts with the windshield tear-offs, like those used in NASCAR, on UH-60s, and he directed RAM & SA to leverage other technologies from racing. The RAM division formed a partnership with the Roush-Fenway Racing Team to cheaply test and prove out new materials, coatings, processes and nanotechnology," said Kris Walker, RAM & SA team lead/Attack & Unmanned Aerial Systems.

Currently, the RAM and Roush partners are sharing testing and test data on windshield multi-layer tear-offs and diamond coatings for wear resistance.

"Our relationship with Jack Roush has offered us a low-cost/cost sharing methodology to prove out, test and learn of new processes, materials and applications of technologies that improve the reliability of parts," Walker said. "Also, we have been able to bring in Roush expertise and have expanded the Army's prototyping capabilities through advanced materials and processes.

"Given Jack Roush's many resources, vast aerospace capabilities, patriotism and love of Soldiers this is a very mutually beneficial partnership."