NATICK, Mass. (Feb. 26, 2014) -- The Marines were looking for a few good meals. Paul Mandile and other members of the Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center's Combat Feeding Directorate helped deliver them.
The Combat Feeding Directorate, or CFD's Systems Equipment & Engineering Team has helped the Marines develop and procure the Expeditionary Field Kitchen, or EFK, which is designed to provide welcome hot food to as many as 750 forward-deployed warfighters within three hours, including cleanup.
"They love it," Mandile said. "It's a significant morale booster for the Marines in the field. It gives them a hot meal capability that is significantly more mobile, durable and sustainable than their previous large-scale feeding platform."
The EFK, which comes in a two-sided, expandable 20-foot-long, by 8-foot-high, by 8-foot-wide ISO container mounted on the Marine Corps MCC20 trailer, can prepare and serve any of the Unitized Group Ration meals developed by CFD. It eliminates the need to transport hot food over long distances to remote locations.
"Marines are all about being expeditionary," Mandile said. "They truly do move. The EFK, complemented by the other combat field feeding systems in the Marine Corps, meets the Corps' operational field feeding and mobility requirements by land, sea, and air. Meeting all the Marine Corps expeditionary requirements presented a significant challenge to CFD. Military Field Kitchens, believe it or not, encompass a lot of different engineering disciplines."
The first production the EFK was delivered in late 2012 to the Marines, who aim to acquire 109 EFKs in total. Sixty-one have already been fielded to date.
"Each EFK is run by four personnel and a supervisor, and its appliances operate from JP-8 fuel," Mandile said. "There are seven burners and seven major appliances in the EFK. The EFK's appliance suite provides the Marine cooks with the flexibility to roast, bake, grill, boil, braise, poach, and stew food items.
The EFK program has been a cooperative effort between Natick's CFD, the Natick Contracting Division, Headquarters Marine Corps, and Product Manager Combat Support Equipment, or PdM-CSE, Marine Corps Systems Command. PdM-CSE has life-cycle management responsibilities for all Marine Corps Combat Field Feeding equipment and Shelter products, and they also provide guidance to Combat Feeding to ensure all research, development and engineering support efforts are fully coordinated.
"It's definitely a partnership," Mandile said. "I'm on the phone with the PdM-CSE's Product Manager and Marine user on a daily basis addressing production, logistical sustainment, and fielding support challenges. Combat Feeding has the lead engineering-support role for Marine Corps Field Food Service Equipment, and the Natick Contracting Division is managing EFK production contract. We're supporting PdM-CSE's fielding of these systems to Marines worldwide. It's truly a team effort."
As Mandile pointed out, the Marines aren't much for using base camps. They maneuver and fight.
"It's all about running and gunning in small units and moving," Mandile said.
The Marines, at some point, want an alternative energy, heat-on-the-move capability. With that in mind, the Marines have identified a field feeding goal of reducing or eliminating their dependence on fossil fuels, which ultimately equates to fewer combat logistic patrols and, as a result, fewer casualties. In addition to the EFK, CFD has several other ongoing research and development efforts to meet their expeditionary mission and reduce the need for fossil fuels and fuel resupply missions.
"Our mission is to provide them with cutting-edge (research and development) in the field food service equipment arena that gives the Marines an enhanced field feeding capability, better quality food, and a significant morale boost," said Mandile, "all while working to reduce cook burdens and the Marine Corps total life cycle costs."
Related Links:
Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center's Combat Feeding Directorate
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