Pine Bluff Arsenal's Directorate of Chemical and Biological Defense Operations has expanded operations on the Dismounted Reconnaissance Sets, Kits and Outfits to include configured sets for the U.S. Navy.
"We completed and shipped the first set of DRSKO systems in September for the Navy, and shipped them to the naval base at Norfolk, Va.," said Rob Shields, chief of CB's Mobile and Powered Division. "We are currently working on a second batch of Navy systems. We anticipate these being completed by the end of the calendar year."
Since March 2015, the Arsenal has been in production with DRSKO, working first on Civil Support Team units, which are fielded to National Guard or Reserve Units in the field. Since that time, the production teams have also done units for the U.S. Army.
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. Each branch of service has their own DRSKO units, and with these come different requirements.
Project engineer Allen Dehagani said the project has lots of parts and the number of pieces in play can be overwhelming. "The CST systems have over 480 parts. Trying to put all these parts together, and flushing everything out through the inventory system is a big task," he said, in an article in 2015.
According to Shields, fiscal year 2019 is expected to be a big year for DRSKO. "We will be working on both Explosive Ordnance Disposal and U.S. Air Force configurations of DRSKO," he said. "Both of these are big steps in the production process. This was anticipated and puts us in the middle of the multi service support mechanism."
Deanne Florquist, project manager with the Directorate of Business Operations and Chris Broughton, CB supervisory equipment specialist with DRSKO and M8E1, are both fairly new to the project.
"This is one of many projects I'm working with," said Florquist. "I've been leaning a lot from Rob and Allen to get up to speed with it."
Broughton, who is a new supervisor to the DRSKO area, said he is getting energized about the progress with the project. "We are excited to bring Chris into the project," said Shields. "He has a strong background in consequence management along with his knowledge of equipment management which will be valuable to the project."
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