New Kirtland building to house AFRL's electromagnetic systems

  • Published
  • By Ryan Stark
  • Nucleus writer
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  A crowd gathered inside a towering white room at Kirtland Sept. 22 to dedicate a newly constructed building for electromagnetics work at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Building 903, just south of the Truman gate, will bring together people and equipment that have, up to now, been spread across various facilities at Kirtland.

David Hardy, former AFRL Directed Energy Directorate director, ended the ceremony with a ribbon-cutting.

"It's always a pleasure to see something we've been working on for a long time finally get done," Hardy said. "High-powered electromagnetics are at the forefront of how we're going to build weapons systems in the future, and this building is a key part of that."

The 6,500-square-foot, $2 million building was funded by the 2009 Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act, which allows military laboratory directors to use up to 3 percent of their annual budget for programs that move new technology from experimental prototypes into production for operational use.

Hardy said electromagnetic systems developed at Kirtland are making that transition.

Mary Lou Robinson, chief of AFRL's high power electromagnetics division, said it was a very special day for her and the division's members.

"This building is a true accomplishment toward enabling our science," she said. "We often focus on experiments, but without a building like this, we have nowhere to conduct our experiments. This will truly enable our future."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led construction of the facility. Army Maj. Jason Melchior said the corps' partnerships with the Air Force and AFRL are gratifying.

"We enjoy our relationship with AFRL," he said. "We have the ability to work with all partners at Kirtland, and it's good to see this facility come to fruition."