A potential long-term production project for the Directorate of Chemical and Biological Defense Operations is ramping up very quickly in the next few months -- with production slated for around the first of next year. The project is the DRSKO or Dismounted Reconnaissance Sets, Kits and Outfits, and Allen Dehaghani, project engineer, is certainly excited about it.
"The DRSKO is a system of sensors, protective suits, boots, etc., that provides a capability to Soldiers that helps them detect and isolate any chemical hazard in the field," said Dehaghani. "Each branch of service has their own DRSKO units, and with these come different requirements. For example, the Marine Corps units are the most extensive and difficult."
According to information provided by PBA's Engineering and Technology Directorate, these units are used by military forces with emphasis on "enclosed or confined spaces that current systems cannot reach as part of the overall reconnaissance and surveillance efforts for the detection, identification, sample collection and marking of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) and Toxic Industrial Chemicals (TIC) contaminants".
Dehaghani said that the Arsenal will be servicing the CSTs or Civil Support Team units. "These consist of five to seven crated units. Each crate will have several different items inside," he said. "These items will be placed in a secure area inside cages -- where they will be inventoried and stored. We will be starting with 14 units with more in the future to come."
This project will be housed in Building 57-01, located in the area where the former Pine Bluff Chemical Disposal Facility stood. Several of the buildings in that area were saved from destruction at the end of the chemical disposal mission in 2010.
Approximately six to 10 production workers will be given a "grocery list" of items that go in each unit.
"There are even pictures on the backs of these lists showing all the items individually. The worker will then go into the cages, get all the items for whatever bag they are working on, bring them out for inspection by quality assurance, and then pack that bag with the item," he said. "Even thought this project doesn't take a lot of equipment, there are roughly 600 different pieces to each unit."
Visual aids will also be placed at each workstation so workers know which item goes in which pocket and how they all fit together. "We are trying to make it simple as possible because the number of pieces is just overwhelming," said Dehaghani. "Once this mission gets up and running we will be working on one unit at a time. This means that when we are working on bag number one -- we will fill all of bag number one first, and go from there."
Dehaghani said that starting out with the CST units may lead to future work with units from the Army, Air Force and Marines. "I am hoping we will be the hub for DRSKO work," he said. "We will store, pack, send these units to wherever they need to go, and hopefully in the future we will be able to refurbish these units as well."
This project is ramping up very fast, said Dehaghani.
"We prove we can do this and are successful in this project, it will open up more doors. There is a lot of potential for future work," he said. "Our agenda has been fast on DRSKO. We want to get this done quickly and have assembled a team to get this done. They want us to be in production by the end of the fiscal year. This took a lot of effort to get it done but we are getting everything ready."
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