CSI: On the battlefield

  • Published
  • By Melissa Winthrow
  • Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) --  Some of today's most popular television shows feature crime scene investigations, but those pale in comparison to the real-life battlefield investigations an Air Force Research Laboratory scientist here carries out.

In his role in the Air Force Reserve, Maj. Greg Moster, whose civilian job is with AFRL's air vehicles directorate, is assigned to the joint combat assessment team. It is an elite 20-person group that investigates what type of explosive devices cause various vehicle battle damage.

Air Force organizations worldwide call on the team's unique abilities, Major Moster said. And so do those from other services and branches of government, like the Department of Homeland Security.

"This type of work has been around since (the Vietnam War), but has died out quite a bit in years past," he said. "It took on a whole new life when operations in Iraq started."

Major Moster said when the deployment call comes, he and his crew go to the damaged vehicle and start their examination. Damaged vehicles can be anything from jeeps and tanks to helicopters and other aircraft.

The first step, he said, is to review and access the actual damaged aircraft then collect weapon fragments and other evidence, and send it for metallurgy analysis.

They go to either the Missile and Space Intelligence Center in Huntsville, Ala., or the National Ground Intelligence Center in Maryland, depending on whether team members feel the suspected weapon is land or air based.

"We also swab for chemical residue at the site and send it for analysis at a lab the Department of Homeland Security operates," he said. "That helps identify the type of explosives used."

Major Moster said he and his crew spend years studying the "finger prints" various types of explosive devices leave -- much like the television teams look for certain pieces of evidence untrained eyes cannot detect.

That personal identification, along with the metallurgy and forensics, allows them to piece the puzzle together and identify what type of device damaged any particular vehicle.

"The physical damage looks different with each threat," Major Moster said. "I can pretty much tell you what class of device was used just by looking. It's the metallurgy and other forensics that confirm our suspicions."

In the past, the team investigated high-profile cases such as Trans World Airlines Flight 800, which in July 1996 exploded shortly after takeoff from New York en route to Paris, and the F-117 Nighthawk lost in Kosovo in 1999.

In their latest assignment, Major Moster and two other team members spent six weeks deployed with the 3rd Marine Aviation Wing in Iraq. While en route to meet with the Marines, team members also answered a request by U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security officials to help in the ongoing investigation of a DHL A300 aircraft hit by a missile over Baghdad in November.

Throughout the deployment, the team used its investigation techniques and forensics to examine battle damage to the 3rd MAW's aircraft.

After determining what caused the damage, Major Moster and his colleagues work with the affected unit's intelligence officers and tacticians to coordinate tactics to counter the threat.

"For example, should they fly lower or higher?" he said. "If they fly lower, they may take more small arms fire, but if they fly higher, they're more prone to taking missile hits. We help them decide where they want to be and provide them more information so they can make that decision more rationally."

Besides helping the Marines in this situation, Naval Air Systems Command experts used the team’s findings to determine the battle worthiness of certain Navy aircraft systems. Where possible, naval officials use the information to modify certain systems and make them more resistant to threats like the 3rd MAW unit encountered in Iraq.

The team's abilities and findings benefit everyone from the Air Force Materiel Command researcher to the people who control service funds, Major Moster said.

"Our investigations help determine how military units are engaging the enemy," he said. "We can see where the weaknesses are in a particular weapon system and that helps AFMC [officials] do a better job in reducing the vulnerabilities in those particular areas. It can also help decrease the number of resources lost, help put more bombs on target and help Air Force leaders better determine where to put money so more lives can be saved."

At the laboratory, Major Moster is the leader for the reusable military launch systems team, a joint effort between the Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and contractors to design and evaluate access to space vehicles like the space shuttle. (Tech. Sgt. Carl Norman contributed to this story. Courtesy of AFMC News Service)