The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is undertaking several facility modernization projects to support the development of advanced technology, including munitions and spacecraft, the lab’s head said Sept. 28.
While AFRL’s facilities are currently “okay,” they will not suffice “as we look down the way,” said Maj. Gen. Robert McMurry, the lab’s commander, who testified before the House Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats and capabilities panel during a hearing on Department of Defense labs.
McMurry noted that AFRL’s fiscal year 2017 budget request, which is pending in Congress, contains $75 million to start building an Advanced Munitions Technology Complex at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
“This laboratory facility will provide the capability to support research and development of sub-scale, high-speed munitions requiring advanced energetics containing nano and conventional materials,” McMurry said. “This laboratory would be capable of handling and using nano-explosive powders, a much-needed DoD capability that does not currently exist in the U.S. today.”
In FY 2016, AFRL began building a $12.8 million Space Vehicles Component Development Lab at Kirtland AFB, N.M. The new Kirtland facility will support the development of space power generation; solar arrays and photovoltaic cells; space power storage; space vehicle mechanisms, such as launch separators and maneuvering components; mechanism controls; space protection, including radiation-hardened electronics; and environmental sensors and cryo-coolers.
The space vehicle “work is now performed in 11 substandard, inadequate and obsolete facilities spread over 12 miles apart on Kirtland AFB,” according to Air Force budget documents. “These substandard buildings must provide critical spacecraft development components to other labs, but the persistent facility failures create costly and unacceptable delays in other space vehicle programs.”
McMurry also testified that AFRL is looking to speed up its contracting process in response to complaints that getting things under contract takes too much time. The lab brought in outside experts to help it streamline its processes. Retaining contracting officers is also a challenge that AFRL is grappling with, McMurry added.