This week at Camp Atterbury, Ind., the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the Indiana National Guard successfully deployed six technologies as part of a Technology Readiness Experimentation event.
This event was the first of its kind and drew attendees from abroad, including representatives of Australia and the United Kingdom. It was dubbed TREX23-1 and included a mock disaster scenario for resilient communications, including signal devices, counterintelligence, surveillance, and more to be tried out and re-established. Their goal was the successful evacuation of non-combatants.
“TREX is a new and enduring campaign of experimentation developed to support the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve initiative,” Thomas Browning, deputy chief technology officer for mission capabilities in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said. “A key attribute of RDER is the focus on a campaign of experimentation that enables the collection of a body of evidence to accelerate technology transition to the field. TREX is integral to the success of this enduring campaign of experiments.”
Foreign dignitaries on scene for the event included Luke Stevens, the British embassy’s First Secretary of Defence for Science and Technology, as well as Stephen Elgar, of the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, among some 300 attendees. TREX also included an expo with more than 60 technological prototypes focused on fires, command and control, logistics, and capabilities for information advantage.
Another TREX event is scheduled for September.