Water Holes: Filling the Gap for Any Clime and Place
Abstract
The Marine Corps' strategic shift toward distributed operations necessitates modernizing sustainment models to accommodate small, highly mobile, and concealable forces. To address the change, Marine Corps engineers must integrate water harvesting technology with current equipment to provide potable water to distributed troops in austere environments. Bulk water production remains a critical capability that can only be abandoned partially to satisfy the broad range of force requirements and is a necessary measure for water security in austere locations under new paradigms. However, creating small quantities of water by extracting water from the air in places with limited infrastructure is more suitable for distributed operations as it avoids creating large footprints, decreases dependence on supply systems, promotes autonomy by eliminating the need to draw from a surface water source, and enables water production for mobile units that depend on rapid displacement for survival. Findings indicate that atmospheric water generation (AWG) is best served to supplement reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment systems and is effective when integrated with equipment to increase the agility of tactical units. Additionally, merging RO and AWG in single platforms represents an opportunity to incorporate sensor technologies for intelligent control of water resources in a distributed environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 12, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1218062
Entities
People
- Adam G. Cucci