Mil-Log 
Marine West: DoD expands applications for Mobile Single Pallet Unit
With the traditional US Marine Corps emphasis on ‘expeditionary’ capabilities, it was hardly surprising that Mobile Medical International Corporation (MMIC) used Marine West to highlight the expanded expeditionary applications of its new Mobile Single Pallet Unit (MSPU).
According to Mark Munroe, senior vice president for sales and marketing at MMIC, the 400 square foot, rapidly-deployable air beam shelter includes a fully integrated package of LED lighting, power drops, environmental control unit, chem. / bio liner, and outside solar shield that is assembled and fully configured in 10 minutes.
‘It’s completely self-erecting,’ he explained. ‘So once you roll it out flat, and you press the button, that’s it. It goes up by itself with no additional manpower required.’
‘When it goes up it’s pre-lit, with heat and air conditioning all onboard,’ he added. ‘And in stand-alone mode the unit will run, full of fuel, for 5 – 8 days, depending on load.’
Munroe noted that the MSPU was designed onto a light tactical trailer package that fits in a single pallet position on a C-130 or C-17 and was developed under a US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC) contract.
‘It has gone through full mil-standard testing, user evaluation, and it is just about ready to be available for procurement,’ he said. Acknowledging that there was no Marine Corps requirement for this type of system at this time, he added, ‘That’s part of the exposure piece for us having it here.’
Although the complete MSPU is just approaching procurement status, Munroe observed that there are already ‘eight to ten units’ variants of the system that are currently fielded with US military elements.
The National Guard, for example, reportedly has a 600 square foot version of the system mounted on a 30 foot gooseneck trailer to provide a rapidly deployable NIMS [National Incident Management System] compliant Command and Control system.
They take up a lot of real estate when they deploy with that system,’ he observed.
In addition, Army Special Forces have already deployed several of the company’s smaller Expeditionary Shelter Systems (ESS) in Afghanistan.
‘ESS was built to a very specific specification,’ Munroe said. ‘For example, it is mounted on a trailer that meets all of the current towing requirements for the Military ‘Gator’ in things like weight and anti-roll capability. It’s a 225 square foot airbeam shelter and, again, it’s self-erecting. It also has an ECU [environmental control unit], generator set, and ancillary fuel-fired diesel heater, which is a result of the role that it plays in Afghanistan. One of the specifications that it had to meet was that two of these units, with their Gators, had to fit on a Chinook.’
Along with theatre applications by army special operations, he noted that Air Force Special Operations Command is just procuring their first model of the ESS, with the AFSOC model replacing the airbeam design with an integrated articulating frame.
In addition to the direct military applications, he highlighted the system’s applicability is disaster relief operations.
By Scott R. Gourley, Camp Pendleton, California
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