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Abstract:
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Military Forward Operating Base Camps (FOBs ) support and enable sustained military operations abroad by providing safe locations for soldiers and supporting contractors to eat , sleep , and maintain personal hygiene . FOBs need some amount of energy and water to provide these services but are often located in austere environments that do not have access to grid utilities . Off -grid FOBs are not self -sufficient ; they are dependent on supply chains for the services they provide to camp occupants . The challenge of supplying FOBs with fuel and water and removing waste (resource resupply and waste removal comprise logistical requirements ) is associated with very high human , monetary , strategic , and environmental costs . There are many research efforts across the U .S . Department of Defense (DoD ) that seek to reduce FOB logistical requirements , but it is currently very difficult to identify the research efforts that are most beneficial to DoD goals . There are also many factors that make designing FOBs to be more self -sufficient challenging including varying missions , environments , and legacy equipment at currently -fielded FOBs , a lack of baseline data on FOB logistical requirements , an unclear relationship between design changes and resource use behavior , and an unclear valuation of saved resources . This research seeks to develop computer tools and contribute to a methodology that can be used to design FOBs that are more self -sufficient . More self -sufficient FOBs provide high quality services to occupants but do so with mitigated logistical requirements . To this end , a detailed computer model of specific type of FOB (a single 150 -person Force Provider module ) is developed , and baseline levels of resource requirements are established . Potentially resource -saving devices and other design changes are incorporated into the FOB model and simulated to assess each design change's effect on resource use and waste production . Then , estimated resource savings are weighed against required investment for each design change to arrive at design recommendations . The results of this research effort are specific design recommendations for making the Force Provider system more self -sufficient , as well as computer tools and a methodology that are applicable to other off -grid habitation redesign problems . |