Mission
Provide a collaborative and learning environment to inspire, develop, test, and refine new tools and training methods that enhance law enforcement’s capability to adapt and win against drug trafficking organizations.
WRCTC Mission Advancement Lab
Where a problem law enforcement faces, in the field or in the classroom, becomes a tool, a trainer or a process that works.
The lab
A floor, a set of machines, and one standard process.
The WRCTC Mission Advancement Lab (MAL) is a joint Army and Air National Guard innovation lab at the Western Regional Counterdrug Training Center. It helps law enforcement turn the problems they face into tools, trainers, scripts and processes that work.
Officers, investigators, task forces and WRCTC instructors bring the problem and judge the result. Soldiers and Airmen certified on each equipment family do the building, and every project runs through the same five-phase process, SWIFT, developed at the MAL.
Officers, investigators, task forces and WRCTC instructors bring the problem and judge the result. Soldiers and Airmen certified on each equipment family do the building, and every project runs through the same five-phase process, SWIFT, developed at the MAL.
Vision
Adapt faster, win smarter.
Purpose
Leverage the talent, access, and resources of the Counterdrug Program to accelerate learning and solutions, so the WRCTC provides cutting-edge training to law enforcement.
Where we can help
Problems worth bringing to the lab.
Courses are only one place problems show up. If law enforcement is running into a counternarcotics problem that a tool, a trainer or a better process could fix, it belongs here.
Officer safety
Training aids and procedures for hazards that come with drug cases, from exposure awareness to decontamination line sequencing and casualty care trainers.
Drones and new threats
Hands-on familiarity with the small drones trafficking organizations are adopting: inert training airframes, recognition practice and realistic scenario props.
Field gear that fits the job
Mounts, cases, adapters and replacement parts designed and printed to keep equipment working where off-the-shelf options fall short.
Data and workflow
Scripts, templates and checklists that cut repetitive paperwork and make case and evidence workflows faster and more consistent.
Realistic training
Replica lab apparatus, mock evidence, terrain models and scenario props that let officers rehearse before they face the real thing.
Lessons captured and shared
Recorded after-action reviews, short training videos and photo sets so what one team learns reaches the next one.
Support is provided within the authorities of the National Guard Counterdrug Program.
How every project runs
The SWIFT cycle
Five phases, the same for a 3D-printed training aid, a field fix or a new workflow. Each step is cheap, reversible and instrumented, so ideas are drawn before they are built and tested before they are fielded.
S
SPARK
Generate the idea: state the problem.
W
WIREFRAME
Draw the blueprint before building.
I
ITERATE
Rapid prototyping and beta testing.
F
FIELD
Evaluate in a relevant environment.
T
TRANSITION
Scale and hand off for integration.
The goal: shorten the time between identifying a problem and fielding a workable solution.
Start a project
Bring us a problem.
If you are a law enforcement officer, investigator, task force member or WRCTC instructor facing a problem, especially one with a counterdrug nexus, every project starts the same way: with a clear statement of the problem.
01 · SPARK
State the problem
What is getting in the way, where it shows up, and who feels it.
02 · Email us
Send it to the lab
A few sentences is enough. Photos or sketches help.
03 · WIREFRAME
Draw it together
We will work out the blueprint with you before anything is built.