In addition to the two Munitions Response technical sessions and the poster session at the upcoming SERDP and ESTCP Symposium, the Munitions Response Program Area is sponsoring two side meetings related to on-going projects.

On Wednesday morning, we are holding a working session on underwater test sites. A number of SERDP and ESTCP projects are reaching the point of needing a demonstration site and the program needs a way to quantitatively compare the performance of various sensor modalities. Both of these needs can be satisfied by establishing one, or more, standardized test areas. Last year, SERDP sponsored two limited-scope projects to begin preliminary design on test site concepts. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is conducting a project entitled “Preliminary Design Study for Munitions Response Underwater Test Site,” and Parsons is pursuing “A Preliminary Design Study of a Re-Deployable Underwater Test Bed.” Preliminary results from both of this projects will form the basis for the initial discussions in this meeting, but we do not intend to be limited by the scope of these two projects. We hope to explore concepts for emplaced targets, operational concepts, logistics, construction details, etc. If you think you have good ideas to contribute – we need them and urge you to attend this meeting.

On Thursday afternoon, we plan to hold a discussion session on geophysical sensors for underwater munitions response. Both SERDP and ESTCP have supported a number of completed and current projects focusing on magnetometers and electromagnetic induction sensors for use underwater. Two of the technical presentations on Wednesday afternoon will summarize where we are in these areas and there will be a number of posters on Wednesday evening on these projects. We hope that the meeting on Thursday afternoon will take off from there. We would like to explore data needs, development requirements, and any input that needs to be fed back to the test site group. If time allows, a brief discussion of future research needs would be ideal.

The meeting organizers will begin reaching out to potential attendees in the next week or so. If you are interested in attending either meeting, please contact Mike Book (Michael.Book@noblis.org).