Testing equipment for the Army’s future fight has put U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) at the forefront of Army transformation efforts.
After a little more than four months in command, Col. John Nelson has already visited all three of YPG’s natural environment test centers and remains impressed with personnel across the enterprise.
“If anything, it’s enhanced my appreciation for our workforce,” he said. “I knew their reputation externally, but now I’ve been able to interact with them, get out on the range with them and personally see their passion and excitement about what they’re doing.”
In recent years, YPG has achieved an unprecedented prominence within the Department of Defense. The proving ground hosted Project Convergence 2020 and 2021, the latter being the largest capabilities demonstration in the Army in the preceding 15 years. The last three Secretaries of the Army have visited the test ranges, and YPG’s support of ambitious Army modernization efforts is already having real-world impacts. The Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), which entered full-rate production just over two months after Nelson took command, was previously subjected to intense developmental testing at all Yuma Test Center, Cold Regions Test Center, and, most recently, at Tropic Regions Test Center in Central America. The platform incorporates a long list of upgrades that make it significantly more advanced than the M113 armored personnel carrier that it succeeds, which dates back to the early 1960s.
“Our headquarters is very excited about what we do down here and impressed with our staff and what our workforce is able to do,” Nelson said, adding that he also routinely hears similar feedback about YPG personnel and capabilities from external stakeholders and product managers.
Although YPG differs from most military installations in that its primary mission is not training troops for combat, but conducting developmental testing of the equipment they use to ensure it works as it should wherever they may be deployed, Nelson is also proud of the support YPG provides to training Soldiers and Marines, from tenant units like the Military Freefall School to visiting units supported by YPG’s Training Exercise Management Office (TEMO). In the weeks following his assumption of command, TEMO hosted a multi-week training event for the recently stood-up 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit that was preparing for a forward deployment.
“Nothing makes a commander happier than feeling like their formation is trained properly,” Nelson said. “I felt like that was a big deal.”
Nelson adds that keeping relevant with warfighters by supporting training enhances YPG’s core testing mission. One of the major tests during his command so far was an operational test event of the FGM-148 Javelin missile that involved dozens of Yuma Test Center personnel supporting scores of Soldiers performing mock combat scenarios to utilize the system as they would if deployed to a combat zone.
“I think a lot of it was because of the instrumentation and training area we have, and the exercise support we provide through TEMO,” Nelson said. "It really just lends itself to things like that.”
Nelson feels the continued expansion of YPG’s Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems mission is also exciting. YPG is the most capable of a limited number of test ranges able to accommodate this type of work. The proving ground’s clear, stable air and extremely dry climate along with vast institutional UAS testing knowledge makes it an attractive location to testers, as does the ability to control a large swath of the radio frequency spectrum. YPG has more than 500 permanent radio frequencies, and several thousand temporary ones in a given month.
“We have a unique ability to emit,” Nelson said. “Our spectrum flexibility is pretty good out here.”
Nelson believes that good community relations is vitally important in ensuring the proving ground’s long-term viability. He says he is grateful for the support YPG has from the public and from local leaders and civic organizations such as the ‘Yuma 50’ military support group.
“From what I’ve seen, it’s pretty overwhelming. The number of organizations that exist to be advocates for the installation, for the workforce and the Soldiers, is impressive. We’ll find small ways we can support them, but they find really big ways to support us: It is one of the better relationships I’ve seen an installation and a community have.”
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