DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah - The Technology Experimentation & Characterization Field Trials (TECFT) provides testing opportunities in diverse operationally relevant test environments for acquisition managers, international partners, and academic and industry stakeholders of chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) defense communities. This event offers a cost effective means for participants to bring their equipment and operators to collect critical data needed to characterize technology performance.
TECFT is designed to foster development efforts in industry and academia, establish active links between science and technology (S&T), test and evaluation (T&E), optimize test efficiencies, eliminate redundant test events, and assess system performance and suitability requirements. TECFT will help facilitate time and cost reductions for technology testing and expand and support S&T progression to fielded technologies for all domains, including Detection, Protection, and Decontamination.
The Army Test & Evaluation Office (TEO) Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Defense Division sponsors this annual event to assist with supporting initial entry and cost prohibition that occasionally stalls the advancement of new chemical and biological detection technologies.
The July 2025 event was a comprehensive test of next-generation capabilities. It included nighttime releases of chemical and biological (CB) simulants inside the Joint Ambient Breeze Tunnel (JABT) and across the instrumented Target S grid. In response to participant requests, radiological scenarios were also conducted using specialized source materials.
This year’s event hosted five diverse teams, whose technologies ranged from standoff, point and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capabilities. The Joint Program Executive Office (JPEO) Joint Enterprise Technology Tool (JETT) sponsored one of the participating teams as well as Idaho National Labs (INL) to provide radiological sources to challenge teams with that detection capability.
Twenty biological simulant trials, nineteen chemical simulant trials and multiple radiological detection trials were completed at Target S. Fifty-three chemical and biological simulant trials were completed at the JABT.
Dugway also welcomed personnel from the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) to observe the dissemination of a Navy Chemical Agent Simulant to verify our ability to disseminate as well as detect this simulant.
TECFT began as Sophos/Kydoimos (S/K) Challenge in 2014 and then evolved to TECFT in 2020. For the past five years TECFT has been a cornerstone of testing at Dugway Proving Ground. The program's ongoing success and importance are reflected in its planned continuation for the foreseeable future, with events scheduled to continue for years to come.
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