BRLESC II (Ballistic Research Laboratory's Electronic Scientific Computer). Technician operating the console of a first-generation general-purpose electronic computer in operation from around 1966-78. The last such machine to be designed and built at the US Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory site in Maryland, BRLESC II solved ballistics, logistics and evaluation problems at a rate of 5 million operations per second. The input and output devices used punch cards (a reader is seen at left) and magnetic tape. The console displayed what was happening inside the machine. The man at the console is Alexander V. Kurian.