As the United States Army faces an increased demand for cutting-edge weaponry, the speed at which industry can develop prototypes is critical to national security.
Since World War I mobilization in 1917, the United States government has hosted commercial testing on Army proving grounds. Under 10 U.S.C. § 4175 and Commercial Services Agreements, industry uses Army installations to test munitions, aircraft systems, electromagnetic warfare, directed energy, tactical vehicles, and environmental durability. This ability to experiment and operate on large government ranges unavailable in the commercial sector is critical to help private industry rapidly mature new military technologies.
The longstanding practice was once relatively informal without scheduling software, and it lacked a centralized booking process across ranges—creating a massive blind spot for vendors.
In July 2026, then-Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll directed the Army Test and Evaluation Command to build a commercial portal with a scheduling backend so technology providers in the unmanned aircraft systems, counter-UAS, low-cost interceptor, and long-range fires spaces could quickly access ranges to conduct internal research and development. The requirement included testing not just on ATEC ranges, but also on National Guard bases and international installations.
The goal was to align government and commercial vendors.
"This request was very high visibility, and it didn't land in the G-6's lane until we only had three weeks to get a minimum viable product functioning for white-glove service to the vendors,” Jason Heiger, Chief Technology Officer for ATEC, said.
The Communications-Electronics Command Army Software & Innovation Center partnered with ATEC to create a web portal that would speed up the process for all parties.
“The Army Chief Information Officer recommended that ATEC engage with CECOM ASIC to leverage an existing platform that meets Secretary of the Army requirements,” Brian Simpson, CECOM ASIC Mission Manager, said. “Recognizing the high visibility and importance of this opportunity during the initial engagement, CECOM ASIC took immediate action. By remaining flexible, reprioritizing on short notice, and delivering daily capabilities for customer approval, the team successfully met the objective. White-glove service for industry partners was an ATEC goal; white-glove service for our customers is the CECOM ASIC mission."
Standardizing the process was key.
"Each range had its own booking process, and on top of that, industry didn't know the mission of each range—whether it be drone fire, long range, soft kills, or hard kills,” Jean-Carlos Polanco-Ramos, product owner at CECOM ASIC, said. "There were just different types of requirements that each range had to provide, and industry didn't necessarily know that."
Why can it be difficult for vendors to know these things?
Information moves fast. Missions, technologies, and capabilities change. And there was no central digital destination for industry to learn about the available different test ranges.
"Industry isn't government," Polanco-Ramos noted. "And because government moves so fast and we're constantly refining our processes, since vendors aren’t in the know, they might have outdated information."
To help solve this problem, CECOM ASIC stood up testrange.army.mil in three weeks.
With this website portal, CECOM ASIC worked with ATEC to develop a storefront where industry can go to a single ATEC-managed source that processes range access requests and centralizes the booking process across multiple Army test ranges. That way, industry can use the site to determine which range aligns with the testing their organization is doing from a private-sector perspective.
Behind the storefront is an active concierge service managed by ATEC.
"Once a customer fills out the intake form, it has a variety of different fields in which the concierge team can triage," Polanco-Ramos explained. “Now the whole concierge team is part of just one environment. They can see what's available, what's not available, does it meet the standards, does it meet the requirements? If so, check mark, let's book them."
Facing a three-week deadline, the team configured a new Salesforce application to meet ATEC's needs.
As the Army’s designated Low Code/No Code provider, CECOM ASIC can build new Army business applications in days and weeks, not months and years.
Rapid software fielding is critical to meeting modern Army requirements.
“We configured a Salesforce application to meet their needs,” Polanco-Ramos explained. “There is no custom code; it is all configured out-of-the-box capabilities.”
With the new low-code development strategy, Army customers can engage CECOM ASIC in training opportunities, experienced developer support, and test support.
From an operational lens, low-code development provides a broad spectrum of support options, enabling rapid development and deployment, utilizing a single authority to operate, and reducing the cyber burden and cost to customers.
“My background is electrical engineering; I don’t have a software background. But utilizing low-code development, I was easily able to pick up the skills needed to build the external portal web page, build the back-end portion of it for the customer, and we were able to deliver the Army Test Range web page,” Annie Moy, a computer engineer with CECOM ASIC's Digital Solutions Division, said. “If industry gets a way to test things faster, the Soldier gets new technology or new capabilities at a faster rate.”
"CECOM ASIC’s portfolio included several low-code application platforms that could meet this need,” Heiger said. “They not only hit the three-week timeline, but CECOM ASIC continued to make valuable changes to the system with quick-turn two-week sprints.”
As ATEC looks to expand the application with new storefront features, the mission is clear: accelerate access and enhance Soldier capabilities. Enterprise-level speed means increased lethality on the battlefield. CECOM ASIC’s modernization efforts ensure the Soldier gets the latest technology without delay.
During the 2026 Association of the United States Army, or AUSA, Annual Meeting, Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle highlighted the importance of modernizing range access for autonomous systems during the Project Agincourt panel (Watch on DVIDS, beginning at the 33:00 mark).
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