Site Description

Fort Sill, originally called Camp Wichita, was established in 1869. Its mission has evolved from cavalry to field artillery and air defense artillery. Fort Sill occupies approximately 94,000 acres in Comanche County in southwestern Oklahoma. The Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge is located along the northwest boundary and the city of Lawton along the southern boundary. Oklahoma City is located about 90 miles northeast of Fort Sill, and Dallas-Fort Worth is approximately 180 miles south. 

A remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS) is currently being conducted on the Rocket Pond area, which is bounded by NW 52nd Street to the west, McKenzie Hill Road and NW Mow Way Road to the north, East Branch Wolfe Creek to the east, and the installation perimeter fence along Rogers Lane (Highway 62) to the south. Five grids from this investigation were selected for the ESTCP demonstration.

Suspected Munitions Present at the Demonstration Site

20-mm and 40-mm cartridgesHand grenades37-mm, 40-mm, 60-mm, and 75-mm projectiles2.36-in, 3.5-in, and 66-mm LAW rocketsFuzes (grenade, projectile, and rocket)

Due to the historical usage of this site, it is also possible that other munitions types beyond those listed above may be encountered.

Demonstration Summary

Fort Sill presents a mixture of munitions to challenge analysis approaches, paired with benign geology and topography. Fort Sill also presents an opportunity to conduct classification at a site in the midst of a remedial investigation. The information from this demonstration is intended to assist in determining the feasibility of using classification techniques as one of the potential remedies for the site. 

In 2011, initial geophysical data were collected as part of the ongoing Rocket Pond RI/FS using a single, hand-towed EM61-MK2 instrument and a “towed array” of three EM61-MK2 sensors configured side-by-side. Based on a master anomaly list developed from those data, cued Geometrics MetalMapper data have been collected over all targets in the master anomaly list to extract target parameters.

The site was seeded with inert munitions, and all anomalies will be dug to confirm technology performance. Demonstrators will be scored based on their ability to eliminate nonhazardous items while retaining all detected munitions.

Summary ReportSummary Report: Fort Sill – MetalMapper Demonstration  

Demonstration Projects

Advanced EMI Models for Live-Site UXO Discrimination Lead Organization: Sky Research, Inc.

Evaluation of Discrimination Technologies and Classification ResultsLead Organization: Parsons