Expeditionary Campaign Infrastructure modelling

The UK's Armed Forces can be deployed to almost any part of the world and are often operating in some of the world's most inhospitable conditions where they can also be under threat from hostile actions. When deployed to these areas the troops cannot rely upon host nation support and therefore have to come with everything they may need in order to carry out operations from that location. A secure base for the forces to operate from needs to be established and the base can comprise everything one would expect to find in a small town (Accommodation, Hospitals, Technical Workshops and other Working environments), the equipment required to provide these capabilities is known as Expeditionary Campaign Infrastructure (ECI). Defence Technology and Innovation Centre (DTIC) commissioned a study to identify the common requirements across all areas of ECI and to identify where future technologies may be able to help with the operation of such camps. Identified commonalities may lead to advantages of flexibility and scale, however, others areas of interest include the provision of power, water and the use of both of these valuable assets. This study looked at the possibility of the use of renewable energies (e.g. Solar), more efficient means of providing life sustaining requirements (such as maintaining comfortable working conditions and provision of hot water), the recycling of waste water and using solid waste to generate energy.