S&T in the dirt is the cornerstone of DEVCOM’s Soldier-Centered Design and Experimentation. Working side-by-side with Soldiers in the field enables us to gather information to inform decisions about developmental technology. Our global team of scientists, engineers, technicians and analysts continuously seek opportunities to gather feedback from Soldiers during Soldier touch points and experiments.
DEVCOM conducts many different types of experiments to inform decisions for future technology. History has shown that experimentation can lead to extraordinary innovations including breakthroughs that are the result of combining different solutions that had never been combined or shown to Soldiers. Fostering this type of environment is key to pushing innovation.
DEVCOM’s Research Lab and seven centers work together and partner with Soldiers early in the development process to provide input to industry, testers, researchers and acquisition experts on the capabilities the Army will need to fight and win. The team develops prototypes and sends them to unit to incorporate into their training and exercises.
In 2021 alone, DEVCOM will conduct more than 200 Soldier-Centered lab and field experiments to accelerate promising ideas and cut the time it takes to deliver tangible Soldier capabilities. Getting S&T into the dirt, and experimentation overall, is an essential step to address the critical needs for the future Army.
Project Convergence is the Army’s Campaign of Learning and the largest of the continuous, structured series of demonstrations and experiments. More than 100 DEVCOM scientists, engineers, technicians and analysts took technologies they are working on out of the lab and into the dirt to gather Soldier feedback at PC 20. PC 20, which was held at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, is the model on which the Army is working to improve the PC 21 exercise.
PC 21 will focus on joint interoperability with the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps in an INDOPACOM focused vignette. To prepare for PC 21, DEVCOM is leveraging its Joint Systems Integration Lab at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, which is its primary systems of systems lab-based risk reduction, integration and test environment. In the JSIL, DEVCOM’s industry and Joint partners work together to integrate and evaluate next generation network components, software applications and sensors as part of the Joint All-Domain Command and Control.
The JSIL has more than 70 CRADA partners that work with DEVCOM to integrate modernization systems and support PC. Integrating new technologies and current programs of record with operators on land, at sea or in the air are essential for the joint force to identify and respond to threats on tomorrow’s hyperactive battlefields.
DEVCOM is committed to developing capabilities to modernize the Army, and Soldier-Centered Design is a critical part of the process.