Photo By christine walker | Cara Davidson, innovations program manager at AFCEC’s Natural Disaster Recovery...... read more read more
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Gerald Romine doesn’t wait for a phone call anymore when something goes wrong on base. From his desk at the 325th Civil Engineer Squadron, he logs into a dashboard and sees building statuses in real time. If a facility drops offline, he drills down to pinpoint whether it’s a panel, a zone, or the entire building.
“This used to take hours,” Romine said. “Now I know what’s happening before anyone picks up the phone.”
Romine is one of the first end users of the Installation Resilience Operations Command and Control platform, known as IROC. The technology was developed in response to Hurricane Michael’s destruction in 2018, which damaged more than 500 facilities at Tyndall Air Force Base. In the aftermath, then-Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson directed leaders to rebuild not what was lost, but what was needed: a model installation for the 21st century.
That directive launched a transformation led by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s Natural Disaster Recovery Division. IROC quickly emerged as one of its most impactful innovations.
“Military installations traditionally rely on isolated systems for power, water, security, communications, and building management,” said Cara Davidson, innovations program manager at AFCEC. “These systems don’t communicate with each other, which creates delays and manual errors. IROC integrates them into a single operational picture, giving decision-makers timely and accurate information when it matters most.”
Currently installed in 155 facilities at Tyndall – including dorms, hangars, command centers, and administrative buildings – IROC functions as the base’s digital nervous system. It connects building management systems, intrusion detection, environmental controls, and room sensors into a secure, unified platform.
Romine credits IROC’s hub-and-spoke network design for improving cybersecurity and resilience.
“Each building is isolated on its own subnet,” he said. “If one gateway fails, it doesn’t take down the whole system.”
Beyond daily operations, IROC is helping shift installation management from reactive to predictive. The platform automatically generates prioritized work orders and alerts the right personnel when issues arise, said Lt. Col. TJ Gabrielson, AFIMSC Program Integration Chief.
“IROC gives us the intelligence to anticipate problems, the visibility to understand their impact, and the tools to resolve them quickly,” Gabrielson said. “It’s a leap forward in mission assurance.”
That leap is now expanding across the Department of War. In 2024, IROC was selected by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering through the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies program. The $20 million award will fund deployments at Beale Air Force Base, California; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; Fort Benning, Georgia; and Patrick Space Force Base, Florida.
“There’s strong interest from the Army and other Services,” said Lance Marrano, senior scientific technical manager at the Army Corps of Engineers and science and technology advisor to AFCEC. “By sharing platforms like IROC, we reduce lifecycle costs and improve capability across DoW.”
Marrano emphasized that IROC is built on Zero Trust cybersecurity principles, including identity verification, role-based access, micro-segmentation, and continuous monitoring.
“There’s risk in connecting systems,” he said, “but disconnected systems present risks of their own when they fail without any warning or notification. IROC provides a secure, cost-effective way to modernize installation operations.”
As Tyndall continues rebuilding, IROC is proving that resilience is not just about recovery, it’s about readiness. What began as a response to disaster is now shaping how installations operate before, during, and after emergencies.
“This isn’t just a local innovation,” Davidson said. “It’s a blueprint for how we build and defend bases in a multi-domain environment.”
| Date Taken: | 09.15.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2025 15:14 |
| Story ID: | 548198 |
| Location: | TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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