ARMY AL&T
The technology development team changed the acquisition paradigm by shaping the requirements to best take advantage of an emerging technology, rather than develop technology-agnostic requirements and request bids from vendors.
paces in a series of field exercises starting with DTRA JSTO’s Rio Robotico, a venue that allows technology developers an oppor- tunity to operate autonomous vehicles outdoors in a variety of scenarios. At this event, prototype sensor systems were distrib- uted in a variety of terrains in the West Texas desert, where sensor range, data throughput and overall communication was assessed.
Te next stop was DTRA JSTO’s Tenacious Dragon 2 (TD2) experimentation at Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis, Texas, in July 2024. DIMES showcased its integrated early warning capability during the event. Participating warfighters concluded that DIMES proved itself as a leap forward in remote and wide- area early warning capability.
TD2 was followed by Beholder’s Gaze in fall 2024. Tis event addresses integrated early warning capability needs in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and the DIMES proved the value of an integrated system of systems for remote monitoring.
Te next big test was Project Convergence Capstone 5, the U.S. Army’s marquee technology modernization demonstration event, held at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, in March 2025. Te system demonstrated its applicability to two of that year’s major themes: Data-Driven Decision Making and Expanded Maneuver.
CONCLUSION Te conventional Joint Capability Integration Development System approach to defining and validating requirements simply cannot keep pace with the rapidly changing technology land- scape and dynamically evolving threats. A better approach is to design experiments to address prioritized capability gaps using the best available technology solution with the warfighters in their operational setting. Tis drives the refinement of the tech- nical solutions, and the acquisition process adapts through agile development.
Samuels is very pleased with the results of the Microsensors program. “We showed the acquisition community that a new paradigm for getting an advanced technology into the hands of warfighters far faster is possible,” he said. “We were able to demonstrate a technology that keeps the warfighter away from the threat altogether using a system that does not further burden them with more stuff to carry or more operational responsibility.”
McDaniel agreed. “We proved the advantage of a new paradigm where requirements are informed by the science and technology communities using experimentation prior to finalizing the capa- bility documents,” she said. “Tis has been a cross-government effort involving several organizations, government agencies and private industry, coming together to make rapid development and fielding of a breakthrough concept happen. It was truly a team effort.”
Next steps for the team are to identify the best-of-breed sensing elements and decision analytics for the microsensor and quantify its detection confidence. Te team will also continue to investi- gate and improve the wireless MESH networking architecture and refine and improve the deployment system. Finally, they will work on discovering new concepts for how best to employ this technology.
For more information, go to
https://www.cbc.devcom.army.mil.
BRIAN B. FEENEY, PH.D., is a public affairs specialist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center, where he writes news and feature stories on the science and engineering achievements of the center’s researchers. He has written for the center since 2014. He holds a Ph.D. in risk communication from Temple University, an M.A. in communications from Cornell University and a B.A. in history from Colorado College.
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