WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s chief expertise workplace kicked off a weeklong experimentation marketing campaign to reveal applied sciences that may be shortly fielded to navy customers.
The occasion, dubbed Know-how Experimentation 2023 or TREX, runs from Could 16 to 24 at Camp Atterbury in Indiana. Hosted in partnership with the Indiana Nationwide Guard, it is going to help the Pentagon’s Speedy Protection Experimentation Reserve, which funds promising prototypes that may meet near-term wants.
“A key attribute of RDER is the deal with a marketing campaign of experimentation that allows the gathering of a physique of proof to speed up expertise transition to the sphere,” Thomas Browning, deputy chief expertise officer for mission capabilities, stated in a Could 17 press launch. “TREX is integral to the success of this enduring marketing campaign of experiments.”
Joint warfighting is a key a part of the Pentagon’s science and expertise technique, launched this month, and RDER is one in all its main technique of attaining that. The division created the experimentation fund in 2021 to deal with high-need functionality gaps shared throughout the navy companies. Since then, it has crafted plans demonstration sprints targeted in three areas: long-range fires contested logistics and base protection.
This system requested $687 million for RDER in its fiscal 2024 funds, practically double the $358 million it requested for final yr. Congress appropriated $272 million for this system in FY23 and $34 million the earlier yr for the trouble.
This primary TREX experimentation marketing campaign will assess the utility and efficiency of six expertise prototypes in a “catastrophe situation” that requires navy forces to ascertain communications. The prototypes – which embody sign gadgets and cyber, safety, surveillance, counterintelligence and reconnaissance capabilities – are anticipated to function throughout the situation “to guard their operators and guarantee a profitable evacuation of non-combatants,” the Pentagon stated within the launch.
Corporations giant and small are additionally showcasing navy expertise at TREX that aligns with RDER focus areas. Greater than 30 corporations and authorities organizations are collaborating within the occasion.
Together with the experimentation and expertise exposition elements of TREX, the twenty sixth Marine Expeditionary Unit is collaborating within the workouts to coach for an upcoming deployment.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s area and rising expertise reporter. She has coated the U.S. navy since 2012, with a deal with the Air Pressure and House Pressure. She has reported on a number of the Protection Division’s most vital acquisition, funds and coverage challenges.