With a few exceptions, the lack of field testing showed. While several companies made progress by the end of the four-day test event, they struggled initially to maintain targets and navigate flight routes. Some of that was due to jamming and some of it was because their technology wasn\u2019t as mature as expected. <\/p>\n
That outcome is not unusual for a prototype demonstration, DIU officials told Defense News during the event. In fact, the government team in Alaska wanted to see how the companies responded when the systems failed and whether they could iterate and come back the next day with a better solution. <\/p>\n
That process is vital for both the DOD and the companies, but most small, commercial firms don\u2019t have access to test space where they can learn and refine their products under the types of conditions they might face in the field. That\u2019s a problem for the Defense Department, whose leaders want to field technology \u2014 and drones in particular<\/a> \u2014 from a broader pool of companies and at faster rates.<\/p>\n DIU\u2019s Trent Emeneker, who leads several autonomy projects for the organization and helped facilitate the Alaska testing, said in order to field systems that meet the needs of troops on the ground, DOD needs to change the way it tests in two key ways \u2014 by providing more opportunities for small tech companies to wring out their systems, and staging those tests in the field with military operators.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we want to succeed, we have to embed engineers with warfighters, and we have to be out in the field testing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to do it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Commercial access<\/p>\n Helping DOD get to that \u201call-the-time\u201d testing cadence is a rising priority for DIU. <\/p>\n In June, it announced a prize challenge called Project G.I., which calls for \u201cready-now\u201d uncrewed systems<\/a> that can help increase the effectiveness of small military cells operating in low-bandwidth environments with disrupted communications. Companies selected will participate in a live demonstration with military operators and a subset of those will advance for a chance to either receive funding to mature their systems or contracts to deliver capabilities to military units for further testing or prototyping. <\/p>\n A second effort, DIU\u2019s new Range Strike Group, was launched earlier this summer to take a wholistic look at the testing challenge. Will Ryan, DIU\u2019s autonomy portfolio manager and one of the leaders of the task force, said the group is still in the early phases of defining the problem and formulating ideas for how to address it. From there, it will craft recommendations and identify offices within DOD that are best positioned to move them forward. <\/p>\n Ryan told Defense News that improving test access for a wider swath of companies benefits not only the firms themselves but the Defense Department \u2014 especially as it looks to field technology that both works and can be delivered on faster timelines. <\/p>\n \u201cProviding an opportunity for these companies to assess their products in a contested environment against a notional threat is really valuable, one, for the DOD to assess their product in that way,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also important for the companies to see where they\u2019re succeeding or where they\u2019re falling short so they can make tweaks and have a better product.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the group\u2019s early tasks is to identify the policy hurdles that programs have to clear in order organize an EW test event. DOD has its own policies around spectrum management as do the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission, which require programs to go through an approval process to perform any testing that interferes with GPS or communications signals. <\/p>\n Programs that are testing outside of a military installation also need waivers from the FAA to fly aircraft at distances that extend further than what an operator can see, or beyond the visual line of sight. Some requirements are eased for testing on DOD bases because the airspace around the installations is restricted. <\/p>\n Another challenge: Many military ranges aren\u2019t equipped with the infrastructure<\/a> to support EW testing \u2014 and if they are, program managers looking to schedule a test have to navigate a slew of policy and safety restrictions to minimize the impact of GPS disruption on nearby cities or towns as well as commercial aircraft. <\/p>\n DOD\u2019s most advanced ranges, like White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, are in high demand by some of the military\u2019s most complex systems, making it hard for smaller programs and companies to access them.<\/p>\n John Sawyer, a UAS analyst in the Pentagon\u2019s acquisition and sustainment office who helped coordinate the Alaska testing, said all of these challenges add up for programs who don\u2019t have access to significant resources and are running tight schedules. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re looking to do it on the cheap with a very minimal budget and you\u2019re looking to do it on an accelerated timeline, it\u2019s tough,\u201d he told Defense News. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LUXFTBYRQNH3HEKKWKUB4H5SPE.jpg\")
An operator in the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division experiments with equipment that can disrupt uncrewed systems’ command-and-control capabilities. (Courtney Albon, Defense News)<\/p>\n