Army formations will face a host of invisible threats on multidomain battlefields of the future, and experimentation and training in these dynamic environments ready warfighters for layered, interconnected operations.
From ground to space, and at all domains in between, Army Futures Command’s campaign of persistent experimentation and continuous learning drew participation from government, industry, partners and allies to scenarios across multiple experiments. The PNT Assessment Experiment, or PNTAX, hosted by AFC’s new All-Domain Sensing (ADS) Cross-Functional Team (CFT) served as a connective tissue for efforts within the command and enterprise-wide.
“PNTAX provides an environment where we can learn as an enterprise,” said Mike Monteleone, director of the ADS CFT. “This year’s experiment provided more complexity and greater collaboration across the entire community. Opportunities to learn together in a threat-informed environment are invaluable.”
That collaborative nature extended across multiple Army and AFC experiments, helping shape requirements and inform investments early in the technology lifecycle. The Intelligence Center of Excellence’s (ICOE) Vanguard event leveraged multiple high-altitude platform launches and PNTAX sensor-to-shooter threads to accomplish mission sets and operational learning objectives. Additionally, the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) CFT’s Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event, or EDGE, utilized the dynamic threat environment emulated at PNTAX to evaluate the behaviors of launched effects and unmanned aircraft in conjunction with their activities at Yuma Proving Ground.
This year’s experiment also enabled experimentation for Joint air platforms, Unmanned Ariel Systems (UAS) and precision munitions across varying technology readiness levels.
From early iterations of science and technology to advanced systems, PNTAX offered a constructive environment and provided an opportunity for transition and milestone testing for the Army’s acquisition teams.
For example, the Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (PEO IEW&S) and the ADS CFT conducted multiple training scenarios and terrain walks, educating Soldiers on use of the Dismounted Assured PNT System (DAPS) during the duration of the event. Their teams on the ground also made headway with experimentation and Soldier feedback on the PNT Situational Awareness and Electromagnetic Warfare Planning and Management Tool (EWPMT) efforts.
“Shaping capability requirements and executing milestone tests through hands-on Soldier feedback is certainly a win-win for the Army,” said Andy Hotaling, the CFT’s integration and experimentation director. “Not only do the materiel developers get critical feedback from users, but Soldiers have the chance to effectively train in a realistic environment. Additionally, PNTAX offers the most complex and challenging environment available to our Department of Defense, Industry, International and Academic participants.”
This year’s experiment hosted a multitude of units which executed a variety of different operational scenarios. The units leveraged the one-of-a-kind denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environment to explore and refine tactics, techniques and procedures. PNTAX is taking these lessons learned and applications and is paving the way for expanded training in other locations in the future.
This experiment will continue to evolve to support the Army’s transformation and modernization strategies, with invisible adversary threats and U.S. and allied capabilities on future battlefields in mind.
The ADS CFT stood up as the Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space (APNT/Space) CFT completed its mission, and as the team adjusts their scope for a different mission, the aperture opens for experimentation, too.
The next iteration of this experiment will occur during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025 and will change in name to become the All-domain Persistent Experiment (APEX). The scope of the experiment will expand, as well. While GPS and GNSS experimentation remain a necessary priority, sensor and communications architecture
s and data transport and edge processing must be evaluated with a dynamic, realistic threat environment at the forefront.
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