The Department of Defense (DoD) hosted its second technology demonstration to assess and fast-track technologies it considers critical for its Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) effort, the department announced last week.
During the second Technology Readiness Experimentation 2023 (T-REX 23-2) – hosted from Oct. 10-20 in partnership with the Indiana National Guard – conducted 11 full-scale assessments of new and innovative warfighting technologies to assess their effectiveness and capability for further development.
According to the Pentagon, T-REX 23-2 provides a critical space for accelerating joint innovation through real-world data, which informs future warfighting concept development. The experiments facilitate modernization efforts through rapid prototyping and experimentation of integrated military technologies.
The assessments also align with the department’s effort to develop uncrewed, multi-domain, autonomous systems with resilient communications from space to the ocean floor. The technologies assessed during T-REX 23-2 enable strategic overmatch capabilities to support global operations, especially in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Experimentation like T-REX allows 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,” said Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Dr. David Honey. “This ultimately helps the DoD deter aggression and keep our troops safe.”
T-REX 23-2 is also a critical component of the Pentagon’s RDER initiative, according to the department.
RDER aims to identify and experiment with warfighting prototypes to provide rapid modernization. Focus areas include resilient communication, joint command and control, contested logistics, and asymmetric capabilities.
Technologies that demonstrated capability at T-REX 23-2 “will be eligible to progress to a graduation experiment, such as Northern Edge or Valiant Shield, as part of the RDER campaign of experimentation,” the department said.
