SAIC's Expandable Shelter System Offers Rapid Response

According to Chuck Muller, SAIC branch manager, the Expandable Shelter Systems are an all-in-one solution that covers a broad range of applications and can be rapidly inserted into virtually any geographical location.

"Because it can be set up so quickly and easily, it can be used in any number of rapid response situations, like natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other emergencies," Muller said. "The ESS is easily transported via flat bed truck, railway, cargo plane or helicopter and can be set up in less than an hour by three people. Unlike RVs and towed trailers, which are reliant on passable roadways, the ESS can be airlifted directly to an incident site in the event of a disaster relief scenario."

ESS Is Customizable, Versatile

ESS applications are limitless. The ESS is designed as a modular platform that can be configured to meet a customer's mission requirements. The ESS's open floor plan, along with the ability to connect any number of ESS units together via causeways to increase square footage, allows the ESS to be customized a number of different ways for any number of situations.

"We not only provide a product, we provide a service as well. We can configure and outfit the ESS any way a costumer wants," Muller said. "We design and build each ESS to meet the customer's specifications and will also procure and integrate any non-ESS systems they require."

The ESS offers a number of features for users, based on what situation they find themselves in. It can be configured as a laboratory and analysis unit, personnel quarters, command and control center, or even mobile medical and dental labs. The ESS is self-sustaining with its own power and environmental systems.

Unlike other similar systems, the ESS does not have to be fully assembled in order to be useful.

"SAIC's ESS is unique in that it expands unlike other systems," Muller said. "In other systems, the two expandable sides just slide in and out, which don't allow access to storage space when it's folded up because the entry door is covered."

"With the ESS, you can open the front door when the sides are closed and still use the storage space. You don't need another container to store or transport equipment."

The ESS units are built in two places: Tampa Armature Works in Tampa, Fla., and Berg Integrated Systems in Worley, Idaho. Once they are built, SAIC runs tests on the units, after which they are shipped to the customers.

Iraq Visit Yields ESS Drawings

The ESS was originally designed to fill a warfighter's capability gap.

"We were deployed to Iraq in support of a Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) contract and discovered that the Combined Explosive Exploitation Cell (CEXC) was going to be evicted from their brick-and-mortar facility and they had nowhere to go," Muller said.

From there the idea of a rapidly deployable, self-sustaining, and modular infrastructure was formed.

"Working with the DTRA, we designed and built the first CEXC Deployable Forensic Facilities," Muller said. "We originally built four forensics facilities that consisted of three shelters connected by causeways. The shelters were broken down into a forensic lab, biometric lab and communications shelter."

Under the DTRA contract, 38 ESS units have been built as of June 2009. This contract started the ESS program back in September 2003.

Now the focus is on marketing the ESS to other government organizations and the commercial industry.

"We have spoken with a government agency on the West Coast that wants to use the ESS as a berthing facility for six of its attachments," Muller said. "We've been marketing the ESS this way and we're starting to see an uptick in questions about what the ESS can be used for. It would be shorter to answer what it can't be used for."