Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. -- The commanding general of the 99th Regional Support Command visited the U.S. Army Material Command’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, or CERDEC, Ground Activity to discuss utilizing facilities and resources March 10.
The CERDEC Ground Activity, or CGA, which is part of CERDEC’s Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate, or S&TCD, provides the Army with a relevant venue to assess next-generation technologies, facilitate technology maturation and validate technical progress.
“The CGA is conducting experiments that allow Soldiers to use technology and voice their feedback in a system-of-systems environment,” said Dr. Richard Wittstruck, associate director of Field Based Experimentation and Integration for CERDEC S&TCD. “We have a combination of controlled terrain and spectrum management, something that makes us unique and of value to the Solider and research and development community.”
Maj. Gen. Troy Kok toured the CGA, attended a briefing on field-based risk reduction and participated in hands-on demonstrations of rapid prototyping using 3D print technology, communications networks, and data collection.
The CGA’s capabilities serve as a complementary asset to the Reserves training and showcases the R&D mission that works with Army trainers. Kok noted the value in partnering with CGA for upcoming events, saying “the complex Reserve events would be useful to tie together with the CGA for experimentation purposes.”
Kok is responsible for administrative, logistics and facilities support to more than 43,000 Army Reserve Soldiers across a region spanning 13 northeastern states. He also serves as the senior Army commander at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, and plans to focus his efforts at CGA on enabling training for the Soldier.
“We encourage CERDEC to come up with the requirements and let our command come up with a solution,” Kok said. “Having the continuity in a shared training effort from both the Army Reserve and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will bring value to the Soldier.”
Designed for evaluating and validating solutions, CGA uses its laboratories and instrumented field ranges to demonstrate the impact of integrating networks, sensors, and command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or C4ISR, capabilities in an environment constructed to expose systems to conditions not ordinarily available in developmental environments.
“The CGA looks forward to working with the Army Reserves through the execution of integrated capability events to validate technologies and systems for use in the Soldier’s dynamic operating environment,” Wittstruck added.