Construction was completed Nov. 20 on an Operational Preservation System for the tanks and Bradleys of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, the system is the first system of its kind on the peninsula and the second one for the regular Army.
The system was installed by the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, spearheaded by Ali Baziari, team leader.
"It's basically a big dehumidifier," said Baziari. "It's an easily applied, low cost, high return technology."
A generator blows warm, dry air into the vehicles via a tubing system that attached to one of the tank driver's vision blocks, said Baziari. The tubing is set up so that a total of 14 tanks and 16 Bradleys can be hooked up at any time.
The attachments to the vehicles have a sensor to detect the interior level of humidity and temperature so the system can compensate accordingly. It also has a built-in automatic shut-off to prevent overheating, Baziari said.
The warm, dry air prevents condensation from building up in the interior of the tank, which leads to the corrosion of tank's electronic equipment. Of the damage that occurs from natural wear-and-tear, corrosion is the most expensive and time consuming to repair.
"The Army National Guard and Marine Corps already have this system in place and we've received very positive feedback," said Paul M. Wiatr, logistics management specialist, 403rd Army Field Support Brigade. "This is one of the reasons that we decided to implement this technology here."
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