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Fayetteville Technical Community College hosted the Defense Technology Summit July 25, 2023. The Defense Technology Summit is a collaborative event where U.S. military service members, Department of Defense civilians, retirees, contractors, engineers and innovators gather together to highlight the advanced technology needs of military commands in North Carolina. A variety of civilian companies demonstrated various products and innovations to guests, media and attendees. Throughout the day, panels of military, government and defense contracted innovators engaged in Q&A discussions about various innovative topics for the audience.
The first panel, consisting of notable key innovative players such as U.S. Army Col. Daniel Kearney, a 10th Mountain Division brigade commander, and Fort Liberty garrison commander U.S. Army Col. John Wilcox. They discussed the strategic, operational and tactical challenges for future warfighting missions and identified current gaps in innovation as well as technologies that prevent implementation.
“I was excited to take part as a panel member in the summit and offer my input and experience for this discussion,” said Col. Wilcox. “As a garrison commander, I recognize that innovation starts at the installation so it has been exciting supporting the innovation programs and ideas all over the base.”
The next panel consisted of representatives from military and university defense-related centers of excellence. One panel member, U.S. Army Col. Tyler Harris, a medical officer working in the Womack Army Medical Center, shared his unique innovative experiences in the medical field in terms of innovation. He performs research on future medical support within the U.S. Army Medical Corps.
With the increased number of military service members raising the potential of large-scale casualties, Col. Harris has gotten to see the time, research and resources the Medical Corps has spent time addressing this concern. Concepts and prototypes currently being developed are autonomous, unmanned military vehicles evacuating casualties and dropping blood supplies directly to the battlefield. At the Summit, the panel got to discuss the future and potential reality of unmanned aerial systems and how this impacts combat and American Soldiers.
“I loved the participation we got from the audience at the Summit,” said Col. Harris. “North Carolina has a strong industrial base in manufacturing, technology and education. There is no better partner Fort Liberty could have than the great North Carolinian partners that develop and research modernized products.”
The final panel looked into the future of warfare and how to prepare for potential emerging threats.
U.S. Army Cpt. Shawn Cooper spoke about the innovation centers spread around the country in the XVIII Airborne Corps. Through these innovation labs, multiple units were able to identify and fix real problems with Army-provided resources. Highlighted during his talk were the Engineers who corrected a fault with the IOTV, a mold detection device created at Fort Stewart to fix the barracks mold issues and a cooling device that fits underneath the IOTV that keeps Soldiers from overheating.
Many of these projects went on to win Dragon’s Lair, a semiannual competition hosted by XVIII Airborne Corps where different innovative ideas are assessed and one is selected to begin further experimentation, funding and implementation.
Finally, the event concluded with remarks from XVIII Airborne Corps commanding general U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue. He summed up the entire event by emphasizing the significance innovation has to the Soldiers on Fort Liberty.
“Whatever the U.S. Army needs to be done, they call us,” said Lt. Gen. Donahue. “It is more important now more than ever that each and every Soldier is prepared for the way forward.”
By being a foundation for innovation, XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty keeps every Soldier ahead in capability, lethality and survivability. Fort Liberty is the largest military installation in the world, bringing a monumental ability to rapidly and effectively build a movement and culture within the service.
That kind of change requires strategic involvement with the local innovation centers, support of the ideas generated across all the formations and a proper utilization of the education resources available in the U.S. Army and North Carolina. By compartmentalizing and streamlining innovation efforts, XVIII Airborne Corps sets the course to enhance the Army of 2030.
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| Date Taken: | 07.25.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 08.14.2023 07:27 |
| Story ID: | 450202 |
| Location: | FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 31 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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