Vehicle Mounted Light Weight Composite Exapandable Command Posts

Pacific Engineering, Incorporated, (PEI), recipient of the 2014 Tibbets Award as one of the best in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and 2019 Best of Lincoln NE – Design Engineers Award, is proposing to develop a Composite Expandable Shelter in compliance with  Army Standard Family International Standardization Organization (ASF ISO). This Composite Expandable Shelter will meet the Army’s Future Command Post requirements, supportive of the mobility needs of the U.S. Army while improving the emplacement, erect/strike cycle time of a 1-side expandable Vehicle Mounted Expandable Command Post (VMECoP). The Army’s new command post computing environment (CPCE) is a web-enabled command post system, an upgraded platform which improves the service’s data base collaboration. The legacy system required soldiers to frequently move between multiple computers to complete mission tasks. The CPCE consolidated the functionality of four field platforms: (1) the command post of the future, (2) the tactical ground reporting system, (3) the command web and (4) the global command-and-control system. The consolidation of these platforms improves communication among troops, with the ability to drop graphics into maps, share documents or chat with soldiers in the field, allowing for increased speed of decision making resulting in increased force lethality. The CPCE greatly increases the speed of battle dictating the Command Post be more mobile than the current DoD Standard of Family of Tactical Shelters offers. PEI’s conceptual composite expandable shelter will apply advanced fibers, resins, and manufacturing processes to reduce the weight of the shelter to achieve greater mobility and reduce emplacement cycle time. PEI will model alternative automated erect/strike techniques to assess the speed and reliability of the mechanisms to meet the Expansion Time and Time to Mobility Objectives. Upon short notice the PEI Composite Command Post will have improved mobility such that this mission critical command capability can be transported and emplaced to increase CPCE up-time with a resultant increase in the lethality of the force.0