FPB, fighting a changing threat by Lt. Col. Don Collins Force Protection Battlelab commander Lackland Air Force Base, Texas

When terrorists ignited a truck bomb at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia last June, killing 19 airmen, the effects of the blast were enormous.

Although most of the attention has been devoted to finding those responsible for the tragedy, another quiet, but intense effort is underway to prevent future attacks.

The Force Protection Battlelab stood-up at Lackland Air Force Base in April. Its mission is to identify innovative concepts for protecting Air Force people, facilities and weapon systems and rapidly measuring their potential.

The FPB was triggered by Khobar Towers. The closer we looked at Khobar the clearer it became, we're facing a new and different threat. To defeat that threat, the battlelab will use innovative ideas to bring about systemic changes in the force protection business.

Working hand-in-hand with industry, other battlelabs and the other services, we hope to test a variety of concepts and get the product to the troops in the field, quickly. Some testing will be done through modeling and simulation, then inserted into exercises like the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, for field operations testing.

We're anxious to find better ways to get threat information to the troops on the ground so they can stop the bad guy, long before he gets close.

An example of the type of initiative the Force Protection Battlelab will be looking at is trying to employ Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to detect the threat and defeat it.

If we can detect the vehicle laden with explosives a long way out and can stop it, we stand a better chance of preventing another Khobar Towers.

The Force Protection Battlelab will be manned by 25 personnel from security forces, intelligence, Office Special Investigations, Civil Engineers, communications, engineering, flying, medical and contracting specialties.

We've recruited the best "out of the box" thinkers we could find from across the Air Force. Our folks will examine every conceivable issue relating to force protection; from blast protection, detection, imaging, biological agents, communications, training, doctrine and more.

There is no such thing as a perfect defense against terrorism, but the Force Protection Battlelab is going to help the Air Force stay one step ahead of the bad guy.

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