The SERDP & ESTCP Symposium is just a few weeks away and the Munitions Response (MR) program area is excited to announce the two technical sessions they are offering this year. These sessions will highlight MR efforts to better understand unexploded ordnance (UXO) contaminated sites through demonstration tests and discussing experiences with site project managers. 

The first technical session, “Lessons Learned from Remediation of Sites Containing UXO,” will be structured to facilitate a dialogue between site managers and current investigators engaged in developing new detection, classification and localization systems, software analysis methods, and predictive tools to estimate UXO movement. Presenters in this session will consist of site project managers who will present their experiences at specific Munitions Response sites, including conditions faced, equipment performance, and their recommendations for changes needed for future UXO site assessment and remediation. In particular, they will discuss the challenges they faced in order to help identify research needs that could be addressed by SERDP and ESTCP over the next few years. This session will take place on Tuesday, December 1st from 10 AM to 1:10 PM EST.

Deployment/retrieval of the MuST unit from stern of RDL. Dr. Kevin Williams, APL-UW, is leading this effort and will be the keynote speaker for the “Development and Use of Underwater UXO Demonstration Sites” technical session. Photo by Kim Reading, APL-UW.

The second technical session, “Development and Use of Underwater UXO Demonstration Sites,” delves into how underwater sensors and platforms used to detect and classify UXO have been developed to a point that controlled demonstration and validation of those systems are needed. This session will include presentations and discussion of the development, progress, and use of underwater demonstration sites. The afternoon portion of this session will be a follow-on discussion amongst sensor/platform developers, demonstration site developers, and governmental and commercial stakeholders to develop requirements and best practices. This session will take place in two parts on Wednesday, December 2nd from 10 AM to 1:10 PM EST and from 2 PM to 5:10 PM EST.

MR is looking forward to seeing everyone at the symposium in early December. Don’t forget to register on the Symposium website!