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Human Performance Wing researchers take up the SWORD to assist warfighters and pararescuers

  • Published
  • By Elizabeth Long
  • 711th Human Performance Wing
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory, 711th Human Performance Wing (711 HPW) are transitioning to a new program to provide technology to assist joint terminal air controllers (JTACs) and pararescuemen also known as PJs.

For several years the 711 HPW's Human Effectiveness Directorate had been enhancing technology for the Battlefield Air Targeting Man-Aided kNowledge (BATMAN) project. The BATMAN project is designed to reduce weight, integrate components, enhance ergonomics and improve operator interfaces - thus increasing warfighters' efficiency in the field.

The BATMAN project is concluding at the end of Fiscal Year 2011 and is being replaced with the Specialized Warfighter Operations Research and Development (SWORD) program.

"We are going to continue to develop technologies for JTACs just like we did for the BATMAN program," said Randy Mieskoski, SWORD Program Manager with the 711 HPW, Human Effectiveness Directorate, Warfighter Interface Division (711 HPW/RHC). "But under the SWORD program, we are going to expand our research to the PJs."

PJs perform rescue and recovery missions involving people and equipment (such as an airplane's black box) behind enemy lines. They are part of the Guardian Angel Weapon System, which also includes combat rescue officers, and survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists.

So that 711 HPW scientists and engineers could better understand the work of the Guardian Angel Weapon System, PJs from the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron Air National Guard Unit, Louisville, Ky. staged a rescue demonstration in the parking lot of the Tec^Edge Innovation and Collaboration Center in Dayton, Ohio.

Using a junk car to represent a Humvee, four military personnel from the 711 HPW/RHC acted as "victims" who were trapped in the vehicle following an explosion.

"In such a scenario, the PJ team would come in, assess the situation, extract the people out of the vehicle and get the victims to safety," Mieskoski explained. "By viewing the demonstration from a lab perspective, our scientists and engineers can determine if there is a better way for the PJs to perform any part of their mission. Maybe we know of a technology that exists that can be adapted to help them. We also will be thinking about new technology that we could develop to make their job easier."