Food Service Support for Ground-Launched Cruise Missile Dispersed Flights

摘要

The objective of the project was to provide hot meals to GLCM flight crews in the field without the use of trained food service personnel. Principal system requirements centered around providing one hot meal a day for 50-100 personnel. All signatures such as smoke, noise, and heat had to be minimized to avoid enemy detection. Additionally, the system had to be highly mobile to negotiate off-road terrain, easily set up by two people once on-site, and quickly broken down in an emergency. In the event of a chemical/biological attack, the system had to be easy to decontaminate. An analysis of state-of-the-art military and commercial food service alternatives led to the selection of Tray Packs as the primary hot food source. This ration concept is particulary attractive since Tray Packs require no refrigeration and offer a variety of fully prepared food items that need only to be heated in their containers and served. The MRE (Meal-Ready-To-Eat) was selected for the remaining two daily meals. The Air Force selected a standard 5-ton cargo truck to transport the system. Rationale for this decision lay in a need to maintain vehicle continuity within the flight. The highly austere and durable system including the Tray-Pack heater, hot beverage dispenser, and heated serving line was developed and mounted on the truck with appropriate storage space provided for food and disposable serviceware. A commercial 3-kW diesel-fueled electric generator and Mil Spec diesel-fueled hot water heater were selected to power the food service system.