FORT LIBERTY, N.C. — Army researchers are teaming with operational units to define the future of countermine technology while developing solutions for Soldiers.

The Army’s C5ISR Center joined the 20th Engineer Brigade, 18th Airborne Corps and industry partners during the multi-day Sandhills Project experimentation event in December to demonstrate how Army Futures Command’s R&D community is shaping technological capabilities to meet Soldiers’ current and future needs.

C5ISR Center’s civilian engineers and scientists are modernizing the Army’s countermine mission space through investments in Aided Target Recognition, known as AiTR, with an emphasis on increased Soldier survivability. The Center was one of the first to develop and field AiTR during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, primarily for counter-improvised explosive device applications in combination with ground penetrating radar sensors. Now, the focus turns to the next round of threats. The C5ISR Center is an element of the Combat Capabilities Development Command under AFC.

Mike Donnelly, an electrical engineer in the Center’s Research and Technology Integration Directorate, said the group is developing AiTR algorithms for integration into platforms such as remote and autonomous ground robotics, small unmanned aerial systems and handheld detection systems. Breaching operations must be as fast and precise as possible to maintain momentum and reduce the enemy’s ability to target friendly forces.

“We go to the field to provide live demonstrations with Soldiers and collect data from real targets,” Donnelly said. “This helps us develop a more robust algorithm so that when you give it to the Soldier, you know it’ll work in wide range of environments and conditions. That’s been the fundamental ideology behind our program. Build the best AiTR we can for Soldiers when it comes time to deploy.”

In addition to civilian subject-matter experts, the Army assigns noncommissioned officers to C5ISR Center as enlisted advisers to bridge the gap between lab-based research and operational use.

“Working with Soldiers gives researchers a different perspective because they have on-the-ground experience,” said Master Sgt. Cory Stepp, a combat engineer assigned to C5ISR Center. “As the R&D coordinator for C5ISR Center, I go out and find units, and we take this technology to Soldiers to get a larger amount of feedback. It’s important to involve Soldiers early on so we can help fix some of the problems in the very beginning stages.”

Col. Kenneth Frey is director of the Maneuver Support Capability Development Integration Directorate, which writes requirements for the future capabilities of Army branches that include combat engineers. His team works with DEVCOM Centers and other Army research organizations to understand the current state of the art and where technology is headed to define modernization requirements.

“I aim to modernize the engineer regiment, specifically toward the 2040 future,” Frey said. “What are our threats in 2040? Where do we need to be in 2040 to prepare regiments to operate in that time and space? I leverage the science and technology community to understand the minimums and maximums of technology now and in the future.

“The main obstacle that I see for Soldiers today in this experimentation is they still do this mission in the threat and are physically in the breach. For 2040 or nearer, we want to remove Soldiers from the hazard. Everyone here — S&T, industry, leadership — has come together with their skillsets. It gives a vision of what can be done.”

C5ISR Center electrical engineer Clare Yang said algorithms help to reduce the cognitive burden on Soldiers as they conduct missions as well as improve situational awareness by automatically detecting threats of interest. AiTR does not require a Soldier to continually monitor a sensor feed but merely confirm what the algorithm detects.

“Soldiers can push the ground robotic platform ahead of their units to conduct breach objectives such as cutting wires, moving obstacles and neutralizing explosive hazards while they stay behind,” Yang said.

“With an air platform, Soldiers can elevate their point of view, which allows them to see a farther distance and a wider area. Time is of the essence when it comes to obstacle breaching, and the ability to see as far and wide of an area as possible will help combat engineers gather intel quickly and make speedy decisions. In the coming decades, we’ll see more human-machine integrated platforms.”

Maj. Nick Rinaldi, a project manager at Army Applications Lab, is part of a team focused on working across the service to bring solutions to the front lines.

“There are great programs in place to get us where we need to be in the Army of 2030 and Army of 2040,” Rinaldi said. “In parallel, there are activities happening at an operational unit level across multiple organizations in Army Futures Command and Corps of Engineers. How do we deliver in parallel? How do our Warfighters take advantage of technology as it’s becoming available?”

C5ISR Center participation in experimentation venues such as Sandhills Project and brigade training rotations is instrumental for the Army S&T community to move lab work into the field, according to Marc Titler, a chief engineer in the Center’s RTI Directorate.

“Our engineers and scientists get immediate feedback on the current capabilities that will improve the next iteration of their prototype systems,” Titler said. “SMEs gain a broader appreciation and context of the real-world mission space challenges and problems that helps focus investments and technical investigations.”

By Dan Lafontaine, DEVCOM C5ISR Center Public Affairs

FORT MOORE, Ga. — Operational insights on the battlefront are crucial. The Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment executes field experiments in real time, featuring live fires, simulations and force-on-force engagements to validate what will and won’t work for Soldiers amidst the conflicts of today and the challenges of tomorrow.

DRIVING CHANGE IN THE MANEUVER FORCE

The Maneuver Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate leads the Maneuver Battle Lab’s Live Experimentation Branch and sets the stage for the Army’s concept and materiel development for small unit modernization. As a key proponent on rising technologies, MBL hosts AEWE, an annual event held at the Maneuver Center of Excellence, a premiere showcase of innovations come to life. Each year, MBL partners with the science and technology community to submit ideas that can enhance the future of warfare.

Chris Willis, director of the MCoE Maneuver Battle Lab, shared this year’s experiment focus is “increasing the lethality of the infantry brigade combat team through robotic-enabled maneuver.” This means “taking capability, state-of-the-art technologies, and putting it into the hands of Soldiers, increasing the lethality to deliver the Army of 2030, and design the Army of 2040.”

AEWE

“For twenty years, AEWE has served as our Army’s premiere choice for modernization experimentation,” said Col. Scott A. Shaw, director of Maneuver CDID. “Vendors from all over the world, both industry and government based, submit to participate in the event to gather invaluable data, test their applications, and better yet, receive informative outcomes without the fear of failure when it really matters — in combat.”

Selected systems are presented for Army leadership interaction and put to the test throughout the experiment with Soldier touchpoints. Soldiers at the lowest tactical level can directly engage with the new technologies and various prototypes, and vendors receive invaluable feedback from experienced potential end users.

Willis noted, “AEWE brings together a live experiment and simulation. They are doing live field maneuvers that tie in, and a fighting simulation is simultaneously running.”

There have been a wide range of concepts showcased at AEWE, and some that incorporated feedback have been implemented into real Army applications.

“I remember seeing things like the Black Hornets, which are micro unmanned aerial vehicles, and the Nett Warrior system where Soldiers wear smartphones on their chest, and night vision goggles with infrared and thermal technology — they were all presented and tested here,” said Maj. Joseph Tague, Maneuver Battle Lab operations officer.

The AEWE runs from the beginning of the fiscal year in October, through second quarter, culminating in March with an insights brief. Outcomes and recommendations gathered during AEWE feed the Army Modernization Strategy, support the U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations, and this data informs leadership about the functionality and capabilities available. For many participating technologies, this means getting on the radar for future Army equipment decisions.

HERE AND NOW

“Inviting our partners and allies to collaborate on next-generation military warfare enhances our foreign relationships and underlines the significance of how enduring partnerships are a way our joint forces can deliver ready combat formations and strengthen the profession of arms,” said Shaw.

This year, AEWE has 48 participating concepts that will be put to the test over 50 days, which includes training and data collection conducted at Fort Moore. For AEWE, MBL brought together 182 Soldiers to comprise a multifaceted experimentation force of MCoE service members, foreign allies participating from the British Army, Dutch Army and German Army, and a platoon of Soldiers from Fort Johnson, Louisiana, who will serve as the opposition force acting as near-peer adversaries during Force-on-Force exercises.

“We need to be able to understand how we can integrate new technologies into both our infantry and armor formations,” Willis said. “From the experiment, we are trying to understand the operational effectiveness of new capabilities, looking at concepts, formations, or technologies, and how all three of these connect and could affect each other.”

Soldiers will evaluate components from seven categories — lethality, survivability, mobility, training, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, command and control, and sustainment — of these emerging technologies to gauge their potential effectiveness on modern battlefields. Experimenting and testing proposed concepts and capabilities can directly determine what tools could benefit the force and enhance tactical skills at the lowest echelon.

Shaw emphasized “Across multiple domains, innovation is key in warfighting and successful implementation of cutting-edge technology creates the overmatch necessary to win on future battlefields.”

By Camelia Streff