Photo By Mark Schauer | Held at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) for the second consecutive year, the 2024...... read more read more
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The Army Futures Command’s (AFC) Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Cross-Functional Team (CFT)’s 2024 iteration of the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event (EDGE) has finished its first week of testing.
Held at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) for the second consecutive year, EDGE 24 seeks to optimize the collaborative behaviors of launched effects and unmanned aircraft.
“With EDGE last year we learned a lot about payloads and the network: We really looked at the ability to pass data in more of an offensive-defensive capability,” said Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, FVL CFT Director. “Previous EDGEs had a lot of requirements and thresholds that we had to experiment with: we were trying to accomplish so much that it was very hard to take feedback in very specific sections and drill down on what we learned.”
“The focus is narrower this year,” said Justin Croutch, YPG FVL CFT integrator. “From our perspective it is much more traditional in the sense of how we traditionally conduct testing here, with isolated, independent systems demonstrating capabilities.”
Supporting a wide variety of unmanned aircraft and launched effects testing is commonplace at Yuma Test Center (YTC), but the questions being explored during the experimentation are the most cutting edge in the Army. If a fleet of unmanned aircraft are operating at extended ranges against a near-peer adversary and can’t get back into a secure network, what behaviors are necessary to be able to collect outside of that network autonomously, for example, and what are the behaviors to successfully get back in the network and report back what the aircraft have discovered? Multiple private industry partners have demonstrated potential answers to questions that will help to mature and inform UAS and launched effects moving forward.
“There’s no pass or fail at EDGE,” said Baker. “This is an opportunity for vendors to test their items in a natural environment and show us the capabilities. If a vendor can’t meet the objectives at this time, we will bring them back in when they are ready.”
In the weeks leading up to the event, Yuma Test Center personnel emplaced representative threat systems on the installation’s vast ranges. The test center provided radars, high speed cameras, and other equipment to gather performance data, along with experienced support personnel to collect it. YPG’s clear, stable air and extremely dry climate combined with an ability to control a large swath of the radio frequency spectrum makes it a desired location for the type of testing EDGE was interested in.
“With EDGE we are getting to experiment and allow the vendors to show off their capabilities,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Hicks, YTC Commander. “We’re able to supercharge that environment to make it as close to realistic as possible. If they need to go kinetic, we’re able to put the whole system into function against its intended target and really see if it is working the way it is supposed to work.”
YPG’s vast institutional UAS and counter-UAS testing knowledge and the presence of a wealth of other infrastructure meant for other sectors of YPG’s broad test mission are once again being utilized to support the aviation evaluations: YPG is home to things like technical and tactical targets, as well as generator and combined maintenance shops that benefit the experimentation.
“The Yuma personnel have once again knocked it out of the park,” said Baker. “Our industry partners have already reached the objectives we set for them in the first week. The broader Army support from DEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center and the Army Test and Evaluation Command to help us capture test data has really come together well.”
| Date Taken: | 09.17.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.17.2024 13:08 |
| Story ID: | 481026 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 489 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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