The opening of the application window on Thursday coincided with the unveiling of the organization’s fiscal 2025 investment strategy.

“The OSC Credit Program assesses capital market needs and develops financial instruments to encourage private investment in industries that are both commercially viable and necessary for the geopolitical challenges of the 21st century. The Credit Program employs loans and loan guarantees as an enticement for private capital to invest in potentially overlooked segments of the market that support the development of critical technologies and ensure the availability of vital components. Where private capital alone may require higher interest rates or comparably rapid repayment, the Credit Program can offer competitive rates with substantially longer repayment timelines, thereby providing companies the time and space they need to move new products to market,” officials wrote in the strategy.

The Pentagon created OSC in December 2022. About a year later, Congress formally enacted the office into law through the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act and gave it new authorities to issue loans and loan guarantees to eligible companies working on covered critical technology categories that were laid out in the NDAA, such as autonomous mobile robots. In March 2024, appropriators gave OSC funding for these efforts.

Up to $984 million is available for direct loans, which are expected to range from $10 million to $150 million, according to a notice of funding availability published in September in the Federal Register. Eligible financing activities include capital investment in property, plant and equipment, including acquisition and installation of equipment and certain “associated soft costs,” according to the Pentagon.

The 31 covered critical technology categories include advanced bulk materials, advanced manufacturing, autonomous mobile robots, battery storage, biochemicals, bioenergetics, biomass, cybersecurity, data fabric, decision science, edge computing, external communication, hydrogen generation and storage, mesh networks, and microelectronics assembly, testing and packaging.

They also include microelectronics design and development; microelectronics fabrication; microelectronics manufacturing equipment; microelectronics materials; nanomaterials and metamaterials; open RAN; optical communications; sensor hardware; solar; space launch; spacecraft; space-enabled services and equipment; synthetic biology; quantum computing; quantum security; and quantum sensing.

Among those, industry segments “of particular interest” this year include advanced bulk materials; advanced manufacturing; autonomous mobile robots; battery storage; biochemicals; bioenergetic, biomass; hydrogen generation and storage; microelectronics assembly, testing and packaging; microelectronics manufacturing equipment; microelectronics materials; nanomaterials and metamaterials; sensor hardware; spacecraft; and synthetic biology, according to OSC’s fiscal 2025 investment strategy.

“With the Investment Strategy as a guide, OSC investments will help reduce vulnerabilities to economic chokepoints, support the production of key industrial capabilities, and lead the development of next generation critical technologies,” Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu said in a statement.

The equipment finance offering will involve a multi-phase process including project selection, project underwriting and project monitoring.

For part one of the application process, companies will be expected to provide information that OSC will use to determine eligibility, creditworthiness and alignment with the office’s policy priorities.

“Based on these reviews, OSC selects projects which it intends to fund. OSC proposes preliminary indicative terms and conditions for the project and invites them to continue through the application process,” according to a Pentagon website about the initiative.

The application window that opened Thursday will close Feb. 3.

“OSC expects to continue to respond to market demand by offering more complex forms of Financial Products directly and by partnering with lenders in 2025 and beyond,” officials wrote in the investment strategy.

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Each company will receive $10 million under the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) pilot program overseen by Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. The awards mark the first batch of APFIT funding distributed in fiscal 2025 and they’re being bankrolled through continuing resolution appropriations.

“With the backing of APFIT, these companies have an opportunity to push their innovations over the finish line,” Shyu said in a statement. “We look forward to supporting additional projects important to warfighters as more funding is appropriated.”

APFIT is intended to steer existing innovation projects across the so-called “valley of death” — a phenomenon in which emerging technologies that have successful research-and-development efforts with the Defense Department fail to receive additional funding for production.

The Pentagon did not disclose which companies will receive funding in the latest tranche as it is still finalizing contracts for the selected programs, which include:

• U.S. Special Operations Command Advanced Tactical Flotation Systems
• The Air Force’s Athena – Counter Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) Fused Air Picture
• The Air Force’s Small Unmanned Aircraft Defense (SUADS)
• The Army’s Coral Drift
• The Marine Corps’ Software-defined Tactical Optical Modem for Performance and Ruggedization (STOMPeR)

During a meeting with reporters at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Saturday, Shyu said that choosing capabilities for APFIT is determined by the needs of combatant commands, the individual services and the Joint Staff.

“What we’re doing is we’re looking at the priorities by each of the services, map it to the programs to see which one is the highest set of priorities, and we fund those first,” she said.

Since it was created in fiscal 2022, Congress has tripled the initiative’s budget — allocating $300 million to the effort in FY24. Funding through the pilot program is used to mature production lines, initiate low-rate initial production or augment existing funds to scale production quantities. 

The Pentagon has already awarded 17 projects for APFIT across two tranches in 2024 — four in February and 13 in April. Shyu noted that so far, the pilot program has helped deliver new capabilities to warfighters and demonstrated their effectiveness to the other services. For example, she highlighted that one technology that received funding through APFIT was delivered to the Navy, and since then the Marine Corps, Army and Air Force have all bought the same capability.

“I talk to some of these APFIT companies, and they tell me it is utterly a game-changer for them,” Shyu said. “It has helped them to break into the market [and] get into production, and now all the other services are banging on the door.”

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Signed under Pillar 2 of the AUKUS trilateral security pact, the so-called Hypersonic Flight Test and Experimentation (HyFliTE) project arrangement includes plans to conduct at least six flight test campaigns by 2028, according to a news release from the Pentagon. A funding pool worth $252 million will be used to finance the efforts, the release noted.

“We are increasing our collective ability to develop and deliver offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies through a robust series of trilateral tests and experiments that will accelerate the development of hypersonic concepts and critical enabling technologies,” U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu said in a statement.

As one of Shyu’s 14 critical technology areas, hypersonic weapons are a key development effort at the Defense Department. The missiles are able to fly and maneuver through the atmosphere at speeds of at least Mach 5 — or five times the speed of sound — making them difficult to intercept and defeat.

The U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy have each invested significant time and money into developing their own hypersonic missiles, but individual efforts have faced hurdles during their testing campaigns that have stalled final acquisition and fielding decisions. Those challenges, in part, have been attributed to a limited number of testing facilities and ranges within the United States.

Through HyFliTE, the three AUKUS nations are looking to ramp up the pace of hypersonic weapons testing through collaboration on resources, experience and test facilities. 

“Collaborative efforts are accelerating the development of underpinning enabling technologies, such as high temperature materials, advanced propulsion systems, and guidance and control,” Shyu said. “Each of these technologies is integral to the performance of hypersonic weapon systems and provides enhanced operational capability.”

Australia has previously partnered with the United States on hypersonics through the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) effort. The nation is also home to the Woomera Range Complex, a large and highly specialized testing center that could be leveraged for live flight testing of these types of systems.

“This agreement will accelerate Australia’s sovereign ability to develop and deliver offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies — through a robust testing and experimentation campaign under AUKUS Pillar II,” Tanya Monro, Australia’s chief defense scientist, said in a statement.

According to a news release from the United Kingdom, the HyFliTE project is also expected to foster deep collaboration between the three allies’ industrial bases in order to break down acquisition barriers and strengthen supply chains.

The U.K. has also sourced domestic industry support for hypersonic weapons development through its Hypersonic Technologies and Capability Development Framework, including more than 90 suppliers and a commercial headroom of up to 1 billion British pounds, the news release added.

“This landmark arrangement with our US and Australian partners demonstrates the commitment of AUKUS partners to staying at the forefront of battle-winning defence technology,” United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said in a statement. “This work will keep us ahead of our adversaries on the battlefield, enhance our collective security and contribute to maintaining peace and stability in an increasingly complex and dangerous world.”

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Maynard Holliday, who oversees the critical technologies office under R&E, spotlighted how his team is helping shape a more vibrant innovation ecosystem, during his opening keynote on Wednesday at DefenseTalks, hosted by DefenseScoop.

“Since we began tracking three years ago, we have recorded over 308 successful transitions across all [critical technology areas, or] CTAs — with the exception of renewable energy generation and storage, advanced computing and software, and human-machine interfaces — because those principal directors just came on board within the last six months, and they are still working on their roadmaps,” said Holliday, who is performing the duties of assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies.

“Sixty percent of these transitions have already been delivered to the combatant commands or their military service components — some, [delivered] directly by their service innovation unit, while others have been made available for commercial purchases,” he added.

In 2022, the Defense Department’s Chief Technology Officer Heidi Shyu (who is also Holliday’s boss and tapped him for his current role) unveiled a list of 14 critical technology priorities and a new vision to help transform R&E initiatives to yield deliverable military capabilities.

“When Ms. Shyu put out that memo expanding the critical areas, it was difficult to get the right people in place because these jobs are not permanent. They are what we call ‘tech-refresh jobs’ — similar to DARPA program managers, in the sense that you’re only in the roles for a temporary amount of time. And so to get people to say, ‘Commit, you know, to a two-to-four year assignment, that doesn’t disrupt their families,’ we were lucky in that — and I’ll give credit to our leadership — to say two out of three of those positions, we’ll allow the principal director to be remote,” Holliday told DefenseScoop after his keynote. 

Last year, as part of a broader organizational shakeup, the position of deputy CTO for critical technologies — which Holliday held — was replaced by a newly created position of ASD for critical tech, the role that he’s currently performing.

Holliday confirmed that he recently hired officials to cover the portfolios for renewable energy generation and storage, advanced computing and software, and human-machine interfaces. One official is based in Maryland, one is in Boston and the other is in North Carolina.

Now that those CTA leads are online, he expects to see an increase in tech transitions — because compared to hardware, software transfers unfold much faster.

“You have to have software to run autonomy, AI, hypersonics guidance and control  — all of that, software touches. But as you see in the commercial industry, Meta and Google, you know, they push out these software advances really fast. And so, what our principal director for advanced computing software is working on is what we call the authority to operate — we are trying to streamline that process,” Holliday explained.

“We don’t want to move as fast as the commercial sector, because we have life and death [military considerations]. But we absolutely need to do better,” he told DefenseScoop. 

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Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, has identified 14 “critical technology areas” that she is prioritizing, including trusted AI and autonomy, space, integrated sensing and cyber, integrated network systems of systems, renewable energy generation and storage, and microelectronics. They also include human-machine interface, advanced materials, directed energy, advanced computing and software, hypersonics, biotech, quantum, and 5G/FutureG.

Although S&T funding for budget activities 6.1 basic research, 6.2 applied research and 6.3 advanced technology development only account for about 2% of the Pentagon’s overall budget, it’s considered critical for military modernization because it lays the seed corn for next-generation capabilities.

Of the $17.2 billion that the Pentagon has requested for these budget activities in fiscal 2025, 98% would be divided among those 14 critical tech areas, according to Shyu’s slide presentation during a webinar hosted by NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute on Tuesday.

“If you see where the bulk of our funding is going … the biggest bar chart is trusted AI and autonomy. So that’s not going to be surprising. The second area that we found a lot of money in is in the space technology arena. The third piece is the integrators sensing and cyber … Those three categories of areas we’re funding composed about 65% of our S&T budget,” Shyu noted.

The proposal includes about $4.9 billion for trusted AI and autonomy, $4.3 billion for space, and $1.9 billion for integrated sensing and cyber.

Additionally, it includes $1.6 billion for integrated network system of system, $1.5 billion for renewable energy generation and storage, $515 million for microelectronics, $458 million for human-machine interface, $414 for advanced materials, $355 million for directed energy, $333 million for advanced computing and software, $242 million for hypersonics, $224 million for biotech, $76 million for quantum, and $38 million for 5G/FutureG.

The majority of that — approximately $9 billion — is for advanced tech development, with $5.8 billion and $2.5 billion slated for applied research and basic research, respectively.

Among DOD components, about $8.3 billion would go toward “Defense-wide” agencies not aligned with the services — also known as the Fourth Estate — such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Innovation Unit, Strategic Capabilities Office, Missile Defense Agency, and other agencies and field activities under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, according to Shyu’s slides.

Among the services, the Army would receive about $2.8 billion, the Air Force $2.7 billion, the Navy $2.5 billion and the Space Force $840 million.

The total S&T funding request for fiscal 2025 is 3.4% lower than the 2024 request, per Shyu’s slides.

Shyu noted the importance of technology transition from the S&T enterprise as the U.S. aims to field new capabilities at scale.

A total of 105 projects in critical technology areas were transitioned in fiscal 2023, with trusted AI and autonomy topping the list at 30, according to the Pentagon CTO.

There are several potential transition pathways, she noted.

“The most typical way that people think about is transitioning into a program of record. Right. So that’s the one pathway. However, it could be a piece of software that we’re delivering capability to upgrade a capability that’s already been fielded. So that’s a different way of fielding a new capability. The other way could very well be, we have developed a technology, the technology is being utilized by a DOD prime or commercial company, [and] we then end up procuring that technology. And the fourth way is we’ve transitioned technology for the DOD [and] it could be used by another government agency,” she explained.

She highlighted the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) and the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) programs as examples of initiatives aimed at helping transition promising warfighting capabilities into production.

Several RDER-related technologies are on track to move into production, according to Shyu.

“We have developed some capabilities as part of … the RDER activities. Once we develop it and its mature and the services say, ‘We really would like to have it,’ there are ways that we can just put it right onto the [General Services Administration] schedule and literally a service that wants to procure it just can buy it outright. So it doesn’t have to go through a long procurement process into a program of record,” she explained.

In April, the Pentagon announced the latest tranche of APFIT projects to receive funding, geared toward small and nontraditional contractors. To date, the department has funded 38 companies via the initiative, Shyu said Tuesday.

“We’re helping to fund small companies to get into low-rate initial production. This is helping them to bridge the valley of death that they typically face from [budget activity] 6.3 to get into 6.4 and into-low rate industrial production,” she said, noting that technologies from the first tranche are being fielded by the services and the combatant commands.

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RDER, which was established in 2021, is a signature initiative of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu. Its purpose is to accelerate technologies through the development pipeline from prototypes to validated military capabilities, working directly with the services, combatant commanders, the Joint Staff and industry partners.

The program is focused on capabilities that would be key to joint warfighting in a highly contested environment, including counter-command, control, computing, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (counter-C5ISRT); contested logistics; joint fires; command and control; and information advantage, according to Shyu. Using what she calls “agile development methods,” the goal is to shave two to four years off the timeline for delivering capabilities, compared to traditional processes.

The Pentagon is requesting $450 million for RDER in fiscal 2025, significantly down from the $687 million it sought for fiscal 2024. However, it’s still more than its fiscal 2023 request, which came in at $359 million.

Budget documents released Monday did not explain the reason for the drop in funding proposed for 2025. However, a DOD spokesperson suggested it stemmed from budget pressures related to a law passed in 2023.

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) caps are mandatory and, if disregarded or exceeded, would be enforced by sequestration. Understanding those fiscal constraints, the Department made responsible choices to prioritize readiness and take care of people but make targeted reductions to programs that will not deliver capability to the force until the 2030s, preserving and enhancing the Joint Force’s ability to fight and win in the near term,” the spokesperson said in an email to DefenseScoop.

Last year at the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference, Shyu attributed the bumped-up funding request for 2024 to the fact that the department wanted to conduct multiple technology “sprints” that year.

The department will typically need around $300 million to $350 million per sprint, she said at that event.

“The RDER process draws on the strengths of iterative feedback loops between warfighters and technologists throughout the testing and experimentation phase,” Shyu explained in her prepared remarks for NDIA’s Pacific Operational Science and Technology Conference last week, which were provided to DefenseScoop. “While commercially available components are crucial building blocks, often these systems need to be tailored for military-specific use, demonstrating the value of mission engineering. This is exactly what we are doing through RDER and our rapid prototyping process.”

As an example of a RDER success, Shyu highlighted the demonstration of the family of integrated targeting cells (FITC) that can integrate data from multiple domains into a single, mobile system — noting that the Marines expect the experimentation to accelerate fielding of that capability by four years.

During recent technology readiness experimentation, or what the Pentagon calls T-REX, the department has validated a variety of advanced capabilities including drones — such as loitering munitions and unmanned surface vehicles — resilient communication systems and decoys, according to Shyu. They were tapped for further evaluation and testing by troops at the Northern Edge or Valiant Shield exercises.

The procurement of three RDER-related capabilities was green-lit by the Deputy’s Management Action Group — a key Pentagon resource decision-making board — late last year, according to Shyu, and officials plan to bring more RDER capabilities to the group for review later this year.

“We have stuff … go through the process continuously. Right? So the stuff, like over 30 items that we tested in Indiana [at Camp Atterburry], went to Northern Edge for experimentation. The stuff that graduates and proves its military utility will come up to the DMAGs ready to accelerate it,” Shyu told reporters on the sidelines of the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Defense R&D Summit in January.

She noted that the Pentagon is also planning to conduct a T-REX event in Australia this year and RDER experiment there next year.

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The Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER), and the Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) efforts that feed into it, will be heading to Australia, Heidi Shyu told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Defense R&D Summit.

Australian officials attended T-REX 23-2 last year at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, which was held in partnership with the Indiana National Guard. During that event, DOD conducted 11 full-scale assessments of new warfighting technologies to measure their effectiveness and capability for further development based on the U.S. military’s needs, according to a Pentagon press release.

“The cool thing is, when we did our last technology readiness experimentation in Indiana, I invited the Aussies and U.K. to come down to witness what we’re doing. OK. They were thrilled. Right after that, our key lead flew down to Australia to witness their Autonomous Warrior experimentation. We’re in the process of planning integrated experimentation. We’re literally going to do T-REX in Australia. OK. So this is all the cool stuff we have ongoing and this will eventually lead to one of the RDER experimentations in Australia,” Shyu told DefenseScoop during the meeting with reporters.

The T-REX event Down Under is expected to take place this year, and a RDER experiment there is slated to follow next year, according to Shyu.

RDER, one of Shyu’s signature projects, was established in 2021. The aim is to accelerate technologies through the development pipeline from prototypes to validated military capabilities, working directly with the services, combatant commanders, the Joint Staff and industry partners. It’s focused on capabilities that are key to joint warfighting in a highly contested environment, including counter-command, control, computing, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (counter-C5ISRT); contested logistics; joint fires; command and control; and information advantage, she noted during her keynote at the Potomac Officers Club summit.

A goal is to accelerate capability delivery by two to four years compared to the traditional development process.

With T-REX and RDER, troops have an opportunity to put prototypes through their paces and provide feedback to DOD officials and industry.

“The RDER process draws upon the strength of iterative feedback loops between the warfighter and technologies throughout the testing and experimentation phases,” Shyu said.

The Pentagon’s R&E directorate has been working with the acquisition and sustainment directorate to find the best pathways for transitioning capabilities from development into procurement.

The procurement of three RDER capabilities was recently green-lit by the Deputy’s Management Action Group — a key Pentagon resource decision-making board.

“We had a classified DMAG. So, there were three initial experimentations we’ve gone through that proved military utility. And all three of those are moving forward. I can’t really get into a lot of the specifics, because you got to remember one thing, OK — RDER is scenario-based experimentation with a focus on joint warfighting capabilities, right, and pushing capabilities out as quickly as possible. So, these are the capability that’s maturing and going through and pushing out. So, I don’t want to tell China what we’re doing specifically, but the pipeline is started,” Shyu told DefenseScoop last month during a meeting with reporters at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

On Wednesday, Shyu said the services have stepped forward to be the executive agents for these capabilities.

“They actually have POM’d for” them, she said, referring to the program objective memorandum that sets funding plans for acquisitions. “So, this is how we’re pushing stuff through much quicker.”

Officials plan to bring more RDER capabilities to the Deputy’s Management Action Group for review later this year.

“We have stuff … go through the process continuously. Right. So the stuff, like over 30 items that we tested in Indiana, went to Northern Edge [a U.S. military exercise] for experimentation. The stuff that graduates and proves its military utility will come up to the DMAGs ready to accelerate it,” Shyu told reporters.

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RDER is a signature initiative of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu that started about two years ago. It includes a series of technology “sprints” to identify and experiment with prototypes in order to more rapidly field new systems, close capability gaps and address joint warfighting requirements, particularly for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Focus areas include resilient communication, joint command and control, contested logistics and “asymmetric capabilities,” according to Shyu.

The department has conducted RDER-related experiments in recent months to put promising technologies through their paces.

The procurement of three capabilities was recently green-lit by the Deputy’s Management Action Group — a key resource decision-making board — Shyu said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

“We had a classified DMAG, okay. So, there were three initial experimentation we’ve gone through that proved military utility. And all three of those are moving forward, okay. I can’t really get into a lot of the specifics, because you got to remember one thing, okay — RDER is scenario-based experimentation with a focus on joint warfighting capabilities, right, and pushing capabilities out as quickly as possible. So, these are the capability that’s maturing and going through and pushing out. So, I don’t want to tell China what we’re doing specifically, but the pipeline is started,” she told DefenseScoop during a meeting with reporters at the conference.

The Pentagon CTO declined to identify the types of capabilities that were given the go-ahead.

“I really can’t talk about that. I don’t want to get into classification problems,” she said, adding that they’re “pretty special.”

The tech is not part of the Defense Department’s Replicator initiative which aims to field thousands of autonomous systems in less than two years, Shyu disclosed, noting that technologies that could apply to Replicator are only a subset of the types of capabilities that fall under RDER.

The department hopes to push the three DMAG-approved approved capabilities into production during this budget cycle and get them into the hands of warfighters as quickly as possible, according to Shyu.

“I will say [they could be fielded] quite quickly, that’s exactly it. We’re ready to go into production — as long as there is production money,” she told reporters.

However, Congress has yet to pass a full-year defense appropriation for fiscal 2024 and federal agencies have been operating under a continuing resolution. A year-long CR would throw a wrench into the Pentagon’s plans for moving forward with the three DMAG-approved RDER capabilities because they’re a “new start” procurement that doesn’t have funding yet, she noted.

“My biggest fear is we have a yearlong CR this year. That is my number one fear. We’re on the pipeline with demonstrating capability. We’re demonstrating multi-domain command-and-control capability. We’ve just demonstrated that a couple months ago, right. So the things that worked really well, we want to push it forward, right? If you have a CR that’s going to create problems,” Shyu told reporters.

For fiscal 2024, the Pentagon requested $687 million for RDER efforts.

“The question is: Are we gonna get a budget, right? Everything’s depending on us getting a budget so I can field quicker if the budget supports the procurement. Here’s the fundamental problem that we’re running into: We can move really fast but there’s a lot of activity we have in the pipeline that we want to fund as a part of rapid prototyping that’s stuck because I can’t give the contractor the money to move fast, okay. So please, give us a budget,” she added.

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The Defense Department’s Chief Technology Officer and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush are set to meet with experts from AeroVironment at the facility while they are in California for the annual Reagan National Defense Forum.

AeroVironment produces a variety of uncrewed platforms, including small- and medium-sized unmanned aerial systems, robotic ground vehicles and loitering munitions like the Switchblade family of kamikaze drones.

U.S. Army units have been training with and employing AeroVironment UAS, and the service has purchased multiple variants of Switchblade systems, which are one-way attack drones that are designed to destroy their targets by crashing directly into them.

The Biden administration has also committed to arming Ukraine with hundreds of Switchblades to deploy against Russian forces, and it’s been considering a recent capabilities request that Israel submitted for assistance to defeat Hamas that includes 200 Switchblade 600s.

While sources confirmed to DefenseScoop on Tuesday that the three senior Pentagon officials would be engaging with AeroVironment staff at the Simi Valley plant, they would not speak to the nature of this visit — or verify what’s on the discussion agenda. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Shyu, LaPlante and Bush are expected to meet with other DOD technology providers while on the West Coast, as well.

“We have no details to provide regarding possible senior leader engagements at this time,” a Pentagon spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

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Hosted Oct. 10-20 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, in partnership with the Indiana National Guard, the second Technology Readiness Experimentation 2023 (T-REX 23-2) conducted 11 “full scale assessments” of new warfighting technologies to measure “their effectiveness and capability for further development based on the Joint Force’s needs,” according to a DOD press release.

Notably, Australia and the United Kingdom also participated in the event. The release noted that the exercise aligned with the Pentagon’s efforts to develop multi-domain uncrewed and autonomous systems equipped with resilient communications and that the evaluated capabilities focused on “strategic overmatch capabilities” to support future operations in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere.

If deemed successful, capabilities demonstrated at T-REX 23-2 could also move forward to the upcoming joint training exercises such as Northern Edge or Valiant Shield.

“Experimentation like T-REX allow us to better understand the next-generation technologies being developed across the defense innovation base so we can take steps to expedite their transition and fielding,” Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering David Honey said in a statement.

The T-REX demonstrations directly support the Pentagon’s RDER initiative being spearheaded by Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu.

The Pentagon kicked off the demonstrations in May, which assessed signal devices, cyber protection, counterintelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities during a simulated disaster scenario. Some of those technologies were further put through the paces during this year’s Northern Edge joint training exercise series, the department said.

By conducting multiple technology “sprints,” RDER aims to identify and experiment with warfighting prototypes in order to more rapidly field new systems to combatant commands, close capability gaps and address joint warfighting requirements. Focus areas include resilient communication, joint command and control, contested logistics and “asymmetric capabilities,” according to Shyu.

The Defense Department requested $359 million for the program in fiscal 2023 and is now seeking $687 million in fiscal 2024, according to budget documents. 

More than 300 members of government and industry observed T-REX 23-2 on Oct. 19, the Pentagon said. Along with demonstrations, 42 participants — including large and small businesses, combatant command leadership and representatives from the services —  displayed additional technologies as part of a Prototype Technology Display. 

“The display allowed leaders to see the latest RDER-aligned prototypes in-person, and for companies to help shape the development of front-line military technologies,” the release stated.

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