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The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a testing center dedicated to electronic components that complete larger US Air Force and Space Force systems.
Located at the Radiation Tolerance Research on Electronics for Space and Strategic Systems (FORTRESS) facility in New Mexico, the hub includes capabilities to simulate man-made and natural environments where the resulting technologies will be deployed.
The 6,204-square-foot (576-square-meter) facility will also offer development, assessment, and certification services for devices to be used for aerial, space, and allied craft.
“We have some of the most unique capabilities in the Air Force,” AFRL Spacecraft Technology Division Chief Kenneth Bole explained.
“We use a low-dose gamma radiation for ‘day in the life testing’ of electronics to make sure they last day to day, but in the long term, we also have to look at how they perform over a lifetime.”
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The larger FORTRESS organization, operating under the command’s Space Vehicles Directorate, has already proven its function by producing materials fitted into the International Space Station, the Mars Rovers, and the widely-used Global Positioning System, AFRL noted.
“The vast majority of US spacecraft are enabled by electronics developed and tested here,” Space Vehicles Directorate Director Col. Jeremy Raley stated.
“[FORTRESS] provides national security, and the work that we do here ensures that our critical national security space missions happen with the required resilience and dependability.”