Officials at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, have offered the base as a semi-permanent test site for the Idaho Explosives Detection System, developed by the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory to detect explosives hidden in vehicles. The system uses neutron generators to “interrogate” a vehicle and cause transported materials to emit gamma rays whose explosive signatures can be identified and relayed to a laptop computer within 300 seconds. IEDS program manager Jeff Klinger says the system at Wright-Patt is “quick, inexpensive, and reliable.”
Air Force depots are not typically meant for quick repair jobs, but during Operation Epic Fury, the service moved some of its stateside heavy maintenance capability forward to fix battle-damaged aircraft closer to the fight.
