Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center

Twentynine Palms, California 92278 Public Affairs Office

(760) 830-3760 Fax: (760) 830-5474

For Immediate Release

Release No: PR-130503-NM1

Experimental Forward Operating Base 2013

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER, TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (May 3, 2013) The Combat Center will once again host the Experimental Forward
Operating Base, the Marine Corps innovative process to identify and evaluate energy efficient technologies, May 6-10. Since its inception in 2009, ExFOB brings together stakeholders from across the Marine Corps requirements, acquisitions, and technology development communities to quickly move commercial technologies from concept to combat and provide industry with opportunities to demonstrate new capabilities to improve the combat effectiveness of Marines. There will be 13 technical demonstrations by 10 commercial vendors and 9 government-sponsored displays. Solutions provided by previous rounds of ExFOB are already in use by Marines in Afghanistan. These innovations include reductions of 90 percent in fuel consumption at certain forward operating bases from adopted renewable energy technology. Weight loads on combat foot patrols have also been reduced through the use of solar-rechargeable batteries for communications equipment and other energy-intensive items. ExFOB 2013 will evaluate hybrid technologies to produce power in austere environments. Increasing energy efficiency and using renewable energy sources extends a Marine units sustainability in an expeditionary environment, making for a leaner, lighter force that is ready to respond immediately to crises anywhere in the world in defense of the nation, its allies, and its interests. A tour of the Combat Centers green energy initiatives will also occur May 9th. The tour will showcase the facilities and projects that have established the Combat Center as the Corps flagship installation for energy management and sustainability. The tour will include the installations second co-generation plant, currently in the final stages of construction, which will generate 9.2 megawatts of power for the installation. The Combat Centers two co-generation plants, when fully online, will generate enough electricity to cover more than 90 percent of the installations energy needs year-round. -30Media Advisory: Media wishing to cover the ExFOB should RSVP no later than noon on May 7 with Capt. Nick Mannweiler, at nicholas.mannweiler@usmc.mil. Imagery from ExFOB will be available upon request and on the Combat Centers social media sites. The tour of the Combat Centers energy facilities is considered optional, but interest in the tour should be communicated at the time of RSVP.