Dugway • Military minds from all over the world gathered at Dugway Proving Ground on Friday to share new technologies and glimpse a future of warfare from the ground to space.
This year’s Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event, or EDGE22, featured 16 participating organizations coordinated by the U.S. Army Futures Command Future Vertical Lift Cross Functional Team. This division helps develop “critical combat systems” to ensure Army aviation “maintains vertical lift dominance over enemy forces.”
Just a few of the event’s demos included drone-deployed seismic darts that detect enemy targets, improved radar technology and immersive goggles that allow paratroopers to see a live video feed of what awaits them at a landing zone.
Military personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were represented at the event, which served as an opportunity to increase interoperability among the nations’ armed forces.
“What I think we’re witnessing here is a revolution in the way military operations are conducted,” said Air Commodore Robert Adang, commander of the Netherlands Defense Helicopter Command. “We come from a time where the capabilities were more-or-less stand-alone, employed in their own specific domain.
“Here we see a network of very complex systems that work with each other — partly manned, partly autonomous — achieving synchronized effects, and that haven’t been possible until today,” Adang continued.
Dugway hosts the EDGE event because of the airspace, diverse terrain and unique facilities the base has to offer — which is useful for testing out the different strategies the event puts on display, said Gabe Camarillo, undersecretary of the U.S. Army.
“We’re always looking for, ‘How can we make training more realistic?’” said Brigadier General Brandon Tegtmeier. “We have great installations all over the nation, and really globally, but this place has got space and the ability to do things you can’t do in very many other places. It’s a gem out here, and the people at Utah are just outstanding.”
Since 9/11, the Army has worked to increase coordination with its partners and allies, said Colonel Brian Hoffman, commander of Dugway Proving Ground. And EDGE22 is just another opportunity to develop that network while building on previous experiences.
“To have a major event like this... that they succeed at, just demonstrates the professionalism and how lucky the Army is to have this base and have the committed civilians from the Salt Lake City area that work here,” Hoffman said. “What Dugway gets out of it is understanding how allies work, and [what] we can provide to them, as our allies and partners come to Dugway to do testing and training.”
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