• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Blue Ridge Tests New Biological Agent Detection System

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050601-10
Release Date: 6/1/2005 4:17:00 PM

By Journalist Seaman Apprentice Marc Rockwell-Pate, USS Blue Ridge Public Affairs

ABOARD USS BLUE RIDGE, At sea (NNS) -- U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) went to sea for a scheduled underway period May 16, becoming the first ship to participate in the Joint Biological Agent Identification Diagnostics System (JBAIDS).

JBAIDS is a joint-service project examining a new biological testing system. Blue Ridge Sailors, along with Air Force members and Sailors from various research and evaluation facilities, will be conducting biological agent detection scenarios through early June.

“A big reason that the Blue Ridge was chosen for this test is because it is part of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF),” said Lt. Dennis Doyle, of the Operational Test and Evaluations Force, the Navy’s independent testing agency. “Underway, in an FDNF setting, Blue Ridge possesses a logistical challenge for not only re-supply and maintenance, but most importantly the results.”

Doyle added that the system not only tests for biological agents that could hit the ship through attacks, but also detects agents that Sailors or Marines could come into contact with and bring back to the ship while ashore.

“The JBAIDS test is an integrated operational test and evaluation of biological scenarios,” added the Louisville, Ky., native. “It is designed to use the JBAIDS to detect a limited list of biological agents in both environmental and clinical sicknesses.”

The test occurring aboard Blue Ridge is the first of a three-step process that the system must go through. Tests ashore by other branches of the military are also occurring.

According to Doyle, JBAIDS was not built to replace existing biological detection systems, but to unify all of the current systems used by the military into one joint system.

“Basically, we are taking all of the good things from every service’s system and putting them into one,” said Lt. Cmdr. Carlos Lebron, of the Navy Biological Defense Research Directorate, part of the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, Md. “With a uniform system, the maintenance and training for the JBAIDS will be more cost efficient in the long run.”

Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Arthur Zardaryan, a Blue Ridge lab technician who is aiding the research members in the JBAIDS test, said he feels working in the joint environment is fun yet challenging.

“It’s pretty interesting working with people from the other services. It helps you understand what each service is about. I also really like performing the test and working with DNA,” he said. “You can’t just rely on the machines; you actually have to use your brain. That’s why I like doing it.”

After the tests are completed, the results will go to Operational Test and Evaluations Force. Findings will eventually be presented to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark.

Lebron said the overall test could take an extensive period of time.

“We should reach the third and final stage of testing by 2011,” he said. “After the testing is complete, all flattop ships in the Navy are slated to receive one of the new biological detection systems.”

Blue Ridge, commanded by Capt. J. Stephen Maynard, is forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, and hosts one of the Navy’s most comprehensive communications platforms in the fleet.