GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (March 7, 2017) -- The Armaments Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC) is responsible for the development of all the U.S. Army's armaments from 9mm side arms to 155mm artillery, and everything in between to include weapons, ammunition, propellants, explosives and fire control.
During exercise Dynamic Front II, the 7th Army Training Command here invited four engineers from ARDEC to help evaluate the Army's artillery systems: Alex Tomosieski, ARDEC Fusion Cell; Ductri Nguyen, Projectiles; Matthew Bush, chief of Paladin Fire Control Software Branch; and Thomas DeVoe, chief of Artillery Technology Branch. The engineers will provide expertise in their respective specialities and gather data during this multinational exercise.
John Riedener, 7ATC science advisor, whom coordinated the visit, explained that the goal is to bring new technologies and solutions to the exercises here in Germany.
"Our primary focus is to observe the exercise, looking for opportunities to improve hardware and software interoperability with our NATO and other partner nations," said DeVoe.
These civilians will observe all aspects of the exercise from the planning through the execution and at every level from Headquarters to the Firing Line. This began with attending a mission brief and academics day where they learned the exercise scenario.
"This experience will help 'green' us in the way the actual user utilizes the systems we design. This will help us and our work force focus on what is important to the warfighter," he explained.
When the live-fire begins, they will be with the different gun crews as they execute multi-echelon joint fires.
"We will also be observing the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures used in order to better to understand the Warfighter and their needs," said Bush.
Bush added that this experience will allow us to influence ongoing armament acquisition programs, or initiate new developmental and prototyping efforts based on lessons learned by us during this exercise.
For more information on exercise Dynamic Front II visit: http://www.eur.army.mil/7atc/DynamicFront.html
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