Photo By David Kujawa | U.S. Army Col. Gunnar Kiersey, senior advisor to the office of the Army Surgeon...... read more read more
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LANSING, Mich.— The Michigan National Guard (MING) is inviting industry and research partners to participate in Northern Strike 21 to leverage Department of Defense, industry and academia to improve joint warfighter training capabilities. Collaborative innovation opportunities can assist in that mission.
“Industry partners bring new ideas and solutions for ever-changing challenges and partnering in this way increases our capability to solve real-world problems,” said Army Maj. Gen. Paul Rogers, adjutant general and director of the Michigan Department of Military and Veteran Affairs. “Our goal is to create an everlasting innovation capability for MING, Michigan and the defense industry.”
Northern Strike 21 is scheduled to take place July 31 to August 14, 2021, at northern Michigan’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC). The NADWC maximizes combat readiness through the collection of Michigan’s unique environment and premier Air and Army training venues consisting of Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.
“Michigan’s military training areas provide unique opportunities for defense industry innovators to generate and test ideas that solve mutual complex problems,” said Rogers.
Northern Strike exercise presents an incomparable opportunity for defense industry partners to test emerging technologies. A variety of new capabilities are being tested during the two-week joint forces, multi-national exercise.
“We have several industry partners testing their leading-edge capabilities during Northern Strike, including private industry, Transportation Command and the Air Force Research Lab,” said Army Col. Scott Meyers, commander, Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center. “Industry has objectives that are complementary to what the military needs, and through innovative partnerships, we can enhance not only NADWC capabilities but those of the Department of Defense.”
One example of the challenges the military faces is medical evacuations in various terrains, including austere locations.
“This is important because contingency operations can result in serious injuries or casualties where evacuations cannot be met exclusively with strategic airlift platforms and Air Force Aeromedical Evacuation equipment,” said Meyers. “Northern Strike has been identified as an opportunity to test a patient movement system in a simulated real-world conflict.”
Another challenge falls in the communications arena. Information and communication resources are critical to ensure effective communication channels are maintained while service members are deployed to areas where this infrastructure might not exist.
“We must improve technology in all environments that affect the transmissions of communications,” said Meyers. “Having real-time satellite imagery, enhanced information technology and field radio communications are vital to our success and we are excited to be the testing ground for integrating several new electronic warfare, artificial intelligence and information gathering capabilities into NS.”
This new technology can improve communications, data, and video transmissions from above the battlefield, providing enhanced real-time situational awareness for warfighters across domains.
“We’re building an innovative capability to solve problems in real-time,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Bryan Teff, assistant adjutant general for air and commander of the Michigan Air National Guard. “Our aim is to demonstrate this during Northern Strike 21 and again in future iterations of the exercise.”
This year’s Northern Strike exercise will feature participants from all three Army components, Air Force active duty and Guard, as well as both Marine and Navy components. There is also expected to be participation of units from the United Kingdom, Latvia, and Liberia. Planners are anticipating approximately 5,100 participants who will all have the opportunity to utilize the NADWC’s 148,000 acres of maneuver space and more than 17,000 square miles of special use airspace.
| Date Taken: | 07.29.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 07.29.2021 08:31 |
| Story ID: | 401983 |
| Location: | LANSING, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 291 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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