Photo By Lance Cpl. Katherine Cottingham | First fielded in 1996, improvements to the self-guided FGM-148 Javelin missile...... read more read more
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The work done at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) in 2023 is having real-world impact today-- and will influence modernization and Army doctrine for years to come.
From the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event (EDGE) to the recent entrance of the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle into full-rate production, YPG remains at the forefront of Army transformation efforts all year.
Army senior leaders say the nation is at an inflection point and that successful deterrence against near-peer adversaries with the ability to conduct large-scale combat operations will require long-range precision fires, autonomous capability, and leveraging of other new technologies across all of the Department of Defense’s military branches.
Earlier this year, the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event (EDGE) 23 conducted intense natural environment experimentation at Yuma Test Center (YTC) with over 80 new technologies, blending developmental and operational testing for what may be key elements of the future force. Unmanned aircraft, launched effects, and all manner of ancillary technologies to expand communications capabilities and Soldier survivability were all being tested simultaneously here during the demonstration, which included participation from 32 inter-service organizations, 10 international partners, and multiple private industry companies. The top leadership of AFC’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) CFT were pleased with the support they received by upwards of 300 range personnel from YPG.
“YPG is a literal crown jewel that can replicate a battlefield very, very well,” said Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, the FVL CFT’s then-director, in remarks at a media roundtable with multiple national and international media representatives held at YPG on May 18. “The land, air, and spectrum that the facility offers is undeniably indispensable to our success. The team’s professionalism is outstanding, and we will be back to Yuma.”
Though the event saw such firsts as autonomous landings and resupply and first-ever autonomous landings in a desert environment of a Bell 412 airframe brought to the event by Canada, the principals were particularly impressed with advances that were made in advancing the reach and range of interconnected architectures.
“Our theater linkage with Northern EDGE at Fort Wainwright 4,000 kilometers away really replicated our theater geometry,” said Rugen. “My focus is on getting that information quickly to the tactical edge.”
YPG also hosted large operational tests of an upgraded version of the FGM-148 Javelin missile at YTC this summer and Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC) at Fort Greely, Alaska earlier in the year. The operational testing involved scores of Soldiers and additional support personnel from the U.S. Army Operational Test Command (OTC) performing mock combat scenarios to utilize the Javelin as they would if deployed to a combat zone.
“Javelin came to us originally because they were doing captive carry testing: We took the missile and put it on a UH-60, and did captive carry flights where we essentially pretended the helicopter was the missile itself and captured guidance data on it,” said Steven Norquist, a YPG aviation test officer. “YPG did a really good job, and we stayed in contact with the project manager: When this this test came up, they came back to us and asked if we were able to support them.”
The updated Javelin is lighter, smaller, and boasts better target-acquiring optics that the legacy version. Though live fire of the systems only occurred on the last event of the testing schedule, evaluators used a laser system to detect hits achieved by inert Javelin trainers throughout the scenarios. YPG vehicle operators drove the realistic target vehicles in multiple work shifts across the weeks the testing took place. Placing the threat targets in advance of the live fire took careful work from a variety of YPG support elements, from the Ammunition Recovery group that ensured the paths to the target emplacement sites were cleared of all unexploded ordnance to the Threat Target Systems section who removed the engines and other potentially hazardous materials from the tanks prior to their being towed into place across rugged, roadless terrain by YPG’s motor pool.
“YPG has been phenomenal,” said Perry Jones, OTC Test Officer. “The personnel have most definitely given us all of the support we needed, from our first site visit forward, from ranges to facilities and support personnel. YPG has the area we need to execute the testing and the extreme temperatures we were looking for to really stress the systems.”
The importance of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in the aviation world is growing with each passing year. As the technology proliferates, America’s adversaries could potentially use sUAS to target Soldiers, necessitating robust counter-sUAS (C-sUAS) defenses for use anywhere American forces may be deployed. The Joint C-sUAS Office (JCO), established in 2020 to tackle this threat, has hosted industry demonstrations of the latest C-sUAS technology at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) for the past two years. Their most recent event took place across four weeks in May and June.
“It’s groundbreaking stuff,” said Riley Sinek, YPG test officer. “We’re looking into solutions to deter the most scary threats you see on TV. It’s technology that some people can’t even fathom we’re using to defeat these threats.”
The defeat mechanisms tested ranged from missiles to high-powered microwaves, and the distances the testers used were significantly greater than in previous demonstrations.
“We’re trying to engage these threats earlier and at longer distances so that they don’t have an opportunity to do harm to our forces,” said Michael DiGennaro, JCO test lead.
YPG is the most capable of a limited number of test ranges able to accommodate this type of work. The proving ground’s clear, stable air and extremely dry climate along with vast institutional UAS testing knowledge makes it an attractive location to testers, as does the ability to control a large swath of the radio frequency spectrum. YPG has more than 500 permanent radio frequencies, and several thousand temporary ones in a given month.
“This facility is designed to do exactly what we are doing,” said DiGennaro. “The support from the entire test crew and the range infrastructure itself gives us the ability to focus on our test objectives.”
The Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), which entered full-rate production in September, was previously subjected to intense developmental testing at all three of U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground’s natural environment test centers—YTC, CRTC, and, most recently, at Tropic Regions Test Center in the Panamanian jungle. The platform incorporates a long list of upgrades that make it significantly more advanced than the M113 armored personnel carrier that it succeeds, which dates back to the early 1960s.
The AMPV’s five variants—a general purpose vehicle, mission command vehicle, mortar carrier, and medical evacuation and medical treatment vehicles-- have nearly 80% more interior volume than the M113, and significantly more power, survivability, and maneuverability. The cooling and electrical systems are also more robust to accommodate both existing and future upgrades. It boasts the same powertrain and suspension system as the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and M109A7 self-propelled howitzer, which eases maintenance and logistics challenges for all three vehicles in the field.
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 12.08.2023 09:44 |
| Story ID: | 458210 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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