Courtesy Photo | The Army Futures Command’s (AFC) Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Cross-Functional Team...... read more read more
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YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz.-- The Army Futures Command’s (AFC) Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Cross-Functional Team (CFT)’s 2024 iteration of the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event (EDGE) was made possible by close collaboration with the broader Army and private industry.
Held at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) for the second consecutive year, the data collected at EDGE 24 will optimize the collaborative behaviors of launched effects and unmanned aircraft that will define future battlefields.
“Once this experimentation is complete, we will work on a requirement update where we will talk about refinement of network performance, refinement of behaviors, and lethality,” said Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, FVL CFT Director. “There is a lot to do with lethality that ties back to behaviors: How close can you get to a specific target? How close can we get to the target before the adversary can see us? Will we have to hand the target off to a different system?”
Heavily involving autonomy, 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 conducted, as does its long history of testing UAS.
“We’re really trying to ensure we are satisfying what the CFT and vendors need,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Hicks, Yuma Test Center Commander. “We’ve been able to provide a lot of range space and test support. Everything from radars, high speed cameras, and accelerometers from our Instrumentation Division that really get after measuring performance and getting that data back to the program managers and vendor teams to help inform future decisions.”
Also vital to allowing EDGE to achieve its objectives was the participation of personnel from the Army’s 3rd Brigade Team 'Rakkasans' of the 101st Airborne Division. The participating soldiers provided YPG’s data collection teams and private industry vendors a warfighter insight on the technology and the needs of the operational force in addition to serving as exercise controllers.
“Some would consider it fairly similar to being a Tactical Air Command, but we’re really doing battle tracking,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua Graser, Systems Integrator. “We’re tracking what aircraft are flying, when they fly, how long they fly, and making sure everyone involved has the information they need.”
The 101st also supported the 2023 iteration of EDGE at YPG, which paid dividends to the efficiency of this year’s operation.
“It helps for everyone to have a familiar face,” said Graser. “It’s easy for us to coordinate and understand how the organizations out here operate.”
Aside from being vital to the demonstration’s success, the 101st’s participation was also professionally beneficial to their personnel.
“For my job doing airspace management and systems integration at the brigade level, it’s interesting to see where the technology is going and how it could potentially shape how I do my job in the future,” said Glaser. “With a lot of the capabilities and systems out here doing things autonomously, it will definitely be a big shift in how we think about airspace management as a brigade.”
The contributions of all participants across the three weeks of demonstrations are expected to inform the battlefield use of launched effects.
“This EDGE alone will provide back an analysis that we’ve never had before,” said Baker. “It will be very focused in on two of the most important aspects of launched effects. I would say the most important aspects are the autonomy and the behaviors.”
| Date Taken: | 09.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.23.2024 14:07 |
| Story ID: | 481538 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 163 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 101st Airborne Division support vital to EDGE 24, by Mark Schauer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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