North Carolina National Guard

Fort Bragg, located in North Carolina, is one of the nation’s most combat ready and active military installations. Several airborne units of the U.S. Army are stationed there, notably the XVIII Airborne Corps HQ, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC).

ms consultants provided architectural and engineering design services for the North Carolina National Guard Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) Support Facility located on the Fort Bragg base.

Since the facility’s purpose is to maintain specialized TUAS equipment and serve as a training center for the National Guard, the design team coordinated various equipment types for each of the support spaces within the facility.

As one of the North Carolina National Guard and Fort Bragg Garrison requirements, the new hangar facility had to pursue a minimum LEED Silver Certification. After assessing all of the LEED Silver requirements and without additional costs to the project, the project team made small revisions to the initial building design in order to pursue a higher LEED Gold Certification.

Some of the sustainable elements incorporated into the building design to achieve the higher status were the integration of a geothermal heating/cooling system, gravity-fed solar panels for hot water, and photo-voltaic electric panels, which all qualify as “On-Site Renewable Energy.”

A rainwater-capture system was also integrated into the building design which will house grey-water for flushing toilets and regular maintenance. The rainwater-capture system will also supply water to the covered wash bay to maintain all TUAS equipment on-site.

As another of the Garrison Standards, the design team also worked with the Fort Bragg Directorate Committee assigned to this project to coordinate the specification of energy-efficient products and the installation of the facility performance, monitoring software and all secure & non-secure communication systems. The building monitoring software calculates and records building’s daily utility consumption, which is then electronically reported back to the Directorate on a monthly basis.

Due to the National Guard requirements and immediate need for this facility, the team was required to design the entire facility, pursue LEED certification, comply with all federal and state requirements, and receive all construction bids in less than six months.

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