Photo By Mark Schauer | U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground Technical Director Ross Gwynn (right) speaks with...... read more read more
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As U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) tests military equipment for the Army of 2030, its leadership has embarked on an ambitious program to prepare for the future mission.
Army senior leaders have deemed multidomain operations (MDO) as the force’s new operational concept. The strategy concerns defending against near-peer adversaries able to oppose American forces in all domains: land, sea, air, space, and cyber.
With a significant testing workload on behalf of the Army Futures Command and experience hosting Project Convergence 2020 and 2021, as well as Project Convergence Technology Gateway 2022 and the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event (EDGE) in 2023 and 2024, YPG’s efforts have been at the frontline of ensuring American forces can retain overmatch against any potential adversary.
A major component of YPG’s preparation for testing in 2030 and beyond is the post’s Employee Modernization Effort for Relevant Growth and Enrichment (EMERGE) program, stood up in 2022 with an initial investment of $270,000. More recently, the investment has grown to $750,000 with comprehensive and wide-ranging efforts at preparing members of the workforce for all aspects of the future test mission, covering everything from developing new test methodologies for advanced technologies and utilization of machine learning and artificial intelligence to leadership strategies and critical thinking skills.
The proving ground’s remote and isolated location makes attracting and retaining skilled personnel challenging: by and large, individuals who hail from the local area or have family located here tend to stay longer than those without such ties, which gives YPG a vested interest in promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach with local youth.
“We’re trying to get more outreach and community engagement and expand upon our future generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators,” said Janett Rios, YPG STEM Outreach Coordinator. “We want to give these students some growth and encouragement in STEM fields.”
YPG’s outreach efforts have become a model for the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) as a whole and extends to educational partnerships with area and regional institutions of higher learning.
“Under the technology transfer authority that we got a couple of years ago, we are doing educational partnership agreements,” said Todd Hudson, Director of the YPG Technology and Investments Directorate. “We had three in 2023: Arizona Western College, the University of Arizona, and the Desert Research Institute to help with extreme natural environment characterization.”
One recent example of Yuma’s growing importance in this vein was a visit from University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella barely two months into his tenure leading the institution. In the offices of the school’s Yuma-based Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture in mid-December he met with YPG Technical Director Ross Gwynn and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma Commander Col. Jared Stone to discuss the current and future educational needs of both installations. Curriculum geared toward the unique requirements of YPG’s test officer roles was an area of discussion, as was machine learning and artificial intelligence. The ability to take such training opportunities locally instead of at universities thousands of miles away would serve to stretch YPG’s training dollars further.
“I feel very fortunate that the University of Arizona president came down to specifically focus on the partnership that exists with the Yuma community,” said Gwynn. “From the military to the agriculture community, we all have similar knowledge gaps and technical training requirements that we need to address to ensure success for the future. Advancements in technology today will shape how we address challenges in the future, and the University of Arizona is able to leverage all of those similar requirements and enable us to be efficient by getting trained together closer to home.”
| Date Taken: | 01.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 01.21.2025 14:46 |
| Story ID: | 488728 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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