Courtesy Photo | A pair of Winchester Ammunition employees operate a drone at the Lake City Army...... read more read more
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — In an effort with the Army Materiel Command, representatives from the Joint Munitions Command recently used technology in a way the command has never done before.
At the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri, a drone, also known as an unmanned aircraft system, was used to capture thermal images of the roofs of the buildings to determine roof integrity and maintenance posture. LCAAP is a subordinate installation of JMC, which is headquartered at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.
“We were able to tell if there was moisture in the roofs, and if they were degrading,” said James “Jim” Janke, a general engineer for JMC. “It was more than what inspectors could have seen if they were up there. It was all funded through AMC’s logistics division.”
What were some other advantages of using a UAS for the task?
“No. 1 is safety, and the second is you can see things that you can’t see with the human eye,” Janke said. “Also, it takes less time. You can fly over a whole building very quickly instead of taking the time to climb up on a roof, walk it, take pictures and all that. It saves us a lot of time, and it gives us a capability that we didn’t have before.”
Issues that were detected during the drone inspections, which took place Feb. 18-21, will be addressed, and the use of the UAS gives JMC a way to be proactive instead of reactive.
“Right now, when we do a lot of repairs at installations across the JMC enterprise, it’s if something breaks, we fix it type mentality,” Janke said. “This allows us to plan down the road and take money out of the emergency fund. We’re not scrambling for money and doing all the effort it takes with that. It will save money in the system when it comes to planning. You can do predictive maintenance instead of break and fix maintenance.”
JMC used program funds to purchase the drone, and it will remain at LCAAP.
“They think they can use it beyond roof inspections,” Janke said. "The drone will assist in capturing required photographic documentation in support of our environmental remediation programs, natural resource management programs, and other infrastructure inspections.”
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2025 08:46 |
| Story ID: | 492236 |
| Location: | LAKE CITY ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 44 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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