Site Description

The former Waikoloa Maneuver Area (WMA) is situated on the Island of Hawaii, on the northwest side of the island, approximately 30 miles north of the city of Kailua-Kona in the South Kohala District. The site was acquired by the Navy in 1943 and used as a military training camp and artillery range for 50,000 troops until 1945. The demonstration is being conducted in grids selected from pre-existing areas of interest (AOI) at the site.

Suspected Munitions Present at the Demonstration Site

60-mm and 80-mm high explosive mortars

75-mm, 105-mm, and 155-mm projectiles

2.36-inch rocket propelled anti-tank rounds

US MK II hand grenades

Rockets

M1 anti-tank land mines

Japanese ordnance

Demonstration Summary

Two advanced electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensors were deployed on this site. The MetalMapper (MM) was first deployed on open areas of the site with less challenging terrain. The sensor was used in cued mode to interrogate anomalies detected using a traditional EM-61 detection survey.

The Man Portable Vector (MPV) was then deployed on areas with more challenging terrain associated with rocky outcrops that made the deployment of larger advanced EMI sensors impractical. The MPV collected data in dynamic mode to create a full coverage data map, from which anomalies were selected.  The cued survey consisted of the standard five-point MPV pattern around a target anomaly as well as cued measurements made with the MPV-3D configuration, which introduces two additional transmitter coils allowing a single-shot cued measurement. 

Due to the presence of highly magnetic soil, data processing for both advanced EMI systems included algorithms to mitigate the effects of background responses. The data analysis demonstrators will employ physics-based models to extract target parameters and then classification algorithms to produce ranked anomaly lists.

The site was seeded with inert munitions, and all anomalies were dug to confirm technology performance. Demonstrators will be scored based on their ability to eliminate nonhazardous items while retaining all detected munitions. Results of the data analysis from this demonstration will be posted as they become available. 

Demonstration Projects

Technical Report: Evaluation of Discrimination Technologies and Classification ResultsLead Organization: Parsons

Dipole Discrimination Techniques Applied to Live SitesLead Organization: Black Tusk Geophysics, Inc.

Continued Discrimination Demonstration Using Advanced EMI Models at Live UXO Sites: Data Quality Assessment and Residual Risk Mitigation in Real TimeLead Organization: Dartmouth College/White River Technologies

UXO Characterization in Challenging Survey Environments Using the MPVLead Organization: Black Tusk Geophysics, Inc.