FORT POLK, La. — The Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk hosted their first Innovation Industrial Conference, Jan. 14–15, bringing together defense industry vendors and Army modernization experts to support efforts to modernize JRTC’s Transformation in Contact initiative.
The two-day conference focused on electromagnetic warfare, unmanned aerial systems, unmanned ground vehicles, artificial intelligence, command and control, and intelligence and fires integration.
More than 40 defense industry vendors from across the country participated, showcasing technologies aligned with concepts developed by the JRTC Innovative Modernization Equipping Group. Vendors included Interference Management and Cancellation International, ORKID, Farada Group and EagleNXT.
Representatives from several Department of War organizations also attended, including Army Materiel Command, Army G-3, U.S. Army Reserve Command G-34, First Army Training and the Joint Counter–Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems University.
“This is super important for what we do here at JRTC,” Brig. Gen. Jason A. Curl, commanding general, said about the event. “We’re making sure we continue to move up and close the gap between what we’re seeing in the current operating environment and what we’re able to replicate. We’re focused on making sure that we continue to advance the Army’s Combat Training Center itself.”
Organizers said the conference was designed to connect emerging industry solutions with JRTC’s operational experimentation environment, ensuring future equipment supports realistic training at the Army’s premier CTC.
Sgt. First Class Travis Keiper, USAR Soldier assigned to Task Force 76 from Salt Lake City, Utah, discussed the importance of the conference and gave feedback.
“To build our counter-UAS program, it’s important for us to understand what capabilities and products are coming and how we can integrate them into a top-down program,” he said.
“While I’m here, I can ask questions about what products are coming out, if we can get a better feel for those systems and understand the training timeline so we can continue to develop the program. We also attend several annual training events each year, so it would be beneficial to incorporate those programs as well, along with working with the JRTC here. Ideally, we could bring our unit to Fort Polk to train and gain hands-on experience across the full spectrum of capabilities.”
Maj. Roman Xydias, USARC G34 Training and Exercises officer, shared similar beliefs.
“We are looking at both materiel training solutions and using a bottom-line up-front approach,” Xydias said. “From the USARC G-34 perspective, our goal is to develop a complete concept that moves materiel solutions through the training and testing pipeline within an operational environment, allowing us to clearly determine what capabilities we should be fielding and which we should not.”
Col. Justin Sisak, USARC G-34 program manager, said events like the Innovation Industrial Conference are important because they help build relationships to form partnerships and identify missing links.
“Now that we’re here at the Innovation Industrial Conference, we’ve identified a relationship that we can continue to build and grow,” Sisak said. “The current environment is saturated with individual organizations all trying to solve the same problem at the same time, often in isolation. Those are the walls we need to break down, and this type of event does exactly that for the USAR. It accelerates the maturation of our strategy and campaign plan significantly.”
Lt. Col. Troy Allen Catterton, U.S. Army reservist assigned to the JRTC G-3 Directorate as the senior USAR advisor and the JRTC TIC modernization project officer, was a key organizer of the conference. Upon conclusion of the two-day event, Catterton expressed how the Innovation Industrial Conference enables JRTC to bridge the gap between Department of War initiatives and the modernization of warfighter capabilities.
“There is much more that could be added to the broader environment, but our initial task is to create a venue where technology modernization and its various facets can be identified and where we can leverage vendor capabilities and industry leaders to synchronize our path forward,” he said.
Catteron said he hopes to see the conference evolve into an annual event in the future.
As the Army continues to adapt to rapidly evolving threats, the Innovation Industrial Conference marked a significant step in aligning industry innovation with realistic, operational training. By fostering collaboration across Army organizations and defense partners, JRTC and Fort Polk strengthens its ability to modernize transformation in contact and prepare Soldiers for the complexities of the modern battlefield — setting conditions for continued innovation and readiness in the years ahead.
By Porsha Auzenne
