Unlike most military facilities, the main purpose of the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) is not to train troops for combat, but to test the equipment they use to ensure that it is working properly.
With a unique mission, YPG’s financing model is also unique. Perhaps 30% of the YPG’s funding comes from a Department of the Army allocation to cover overheads.
“We have a different model than the rest of the Army where we rely on recoverable labor,” said Jeff Rogers, Air Combat Director. “When we get our budget, we’re not 100% funded, so we have to get customers to complement each other.”
Most of this reimbursable work is from other customers within the Department of Defense, but some is from private sector customers. In recent years, companies from General Atomics to Facebook have been running tests on the test site with the help of YPG employees. These customers bear all costs associated with their respective examination.
“It keeps our skills up to date because they can work with customers and see the latest technology in the pipeline,” said Rogers. “It’s good for the army because many of the systems the army uses are from private industry. It’s not that the army has a large workforce that is running out and creating a whole host of new things: much of what is later used is adapted or adopted by private industry technology to meet the needs of the army. ”
YPG is a Major Range Test and Facility Base (MRTFB), and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2003 makes facilities with this designation available to other users who have a legitimate need to do so.
“Whenever you decide to take a test at Yuma, my office takes care of all of the initial contract drafting and monitoring of the contracts,” said Omar Silva, division manager and training department manager. “We do this not only for the Yuma Test Center, but also for the Cold Regions Test Center and the Tropic Regions Test Center: We are standardizing the contract process throughout the YPG company.”
Although YPG supports private industry testing, it never competes with private industry.
“There is a law that requires that MRTFBs generally not compete with private industry entities across the Department of Defense,” said Silva. “Every time a customer wants to get out of the private sector and test, we need to make sure that we are not competing with the private sector.”
YPG does this by providing a publicly available list of skills located here and attempting to send prospective clients to private sector entities offering the same services or skills before agreeing to take a test.
“Because of our restricted airspace, customers from the private sector often come to us,” says Silva. “Many private industry aviation tests are carried out here because we have extensive restricted airspace that private facilities cannot provide.”
Most of the airspace over the United States is unrestricted. In order to fly their aircraft under these conditions, unmanned aircraft developers must obtain a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This is a lengthy and exhaustive process that can take months and is specific not only to the aircraft but also to the specific configuration of the aircraft. So if developers want to modify their aircraft in response to their tests, they must get a new COA after each change. Achieving these stringent conditions is unrealistic for an untested unmanned aerial vehicle (UAS) in the early development phase. In addition, an important part of the development process is testing worst-case scenarios. It is unlikely that the FAA would allow such tests in national airspace. The YPG’s 2,000 square miles of restricted airspace, on the other hand, spans miles and miles of land, far removed from any populated area.
There are other benefits to private industry customers conducting aerospace testing. The unmatched capabilities of YPG enable extensive testing without having to compete for runway and airspace with manned fighter jets as is the case with other installations. Another key bonus of testing at YPG is the presence of a plethora of other infrastructures intended for other sectors of YPG’s comprehensive test mission that can be used to support UAS evaluations. YPG hosts things like technical and tactical targets, as well as generators and combined maintenance workshops, all of which are useful for UAS testing. YPG’s Spectrum Management Office can also ensure that it has the frequencies it needs for its specialized testing: YPG has allocated nearly 600 permanent radio frequencies and uses more than 1,000 temporary ones per month.
“If we can accommodate them, that’s great for them and great for us: we can keep our people busy and take advantage of that workload without affecting military testing, and maximize the airspace and range we have,” said, “Silva. “Visiting a training base or other DoD installation can be difficult due to training and deployment schedules. As for us, we are an MRTFB and can incorporate them into the schedule. “
Although aeronautical testing makes up the bulk of the YPG’s work in the private sector, there are also examples from the house’s ground fighting. The world record for the highest artillery shot was set at YPG in 1966. The test fire more than 50 years ago proved the concept of ballistic suborbital space access and the idea of using artillery as an inexpensive alternative to rockets for launching payloads in orbit lives on. In recent years, a private industrial customer called Green Launch has been testing here to launch a projectile into space containing an innovative hydrogen and oxygen gas fuel, the only by-product of which is water vapor.
“YPG is very helpful in keeping our costs under control so we can continue our testing,” said Eric Robinson, Green Launch Business Development Director. “If we went somewhere else, we could never finish the sequence and the world would be deprived of this really promising technology.”
All three YPG subordinate test centers have conducted tests for private customers and benefit from the benefits in a similar and unique way. Since its establishment in 2004, for example, several private customers have used the Mobility Test Complex of the Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC) for their tests.
By providing commercial tests, the test center’s mobile snowmaking machines and other specialized snow grooming equipment not otherwise available in the Department of Defense keep moving, which saves maintenance costs in the long run. Thanks to the continuous use, the technicians at the test center do not lose their skill in handling the esoteric machines: For example, a mobile track dryer in unskilled hands could ruin the asphalt of the track when the snow and ice melt.
“When we have a light military workload, having the ability to conduct commercial testing allows us to maintain the equipment capabilities and expertise required,” said Jeff Lipscomb, CRTC technical director. “That way, with every military test, we don’t have to bother trying to figure out how to support it. For me, the greatest advantage of commercial automotive work is that it means we’re always up to date with the latest automotive tests. ”
| Recording date: | 07/07/2021 |
| Release Date: | 07.08.2021 16:30 |
| Story ID: | 400562 |
| Place: | YUMA PROVING BODEN, AZ, USA |
| Web views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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This work, Private customers use the US Army’s Yuma test site, by Mark Schauer, identified by Divids, must adhere to the restrictions specified on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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