Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Dan Heaton | Technicians prepare a balloon for launch on the shore of Thunder Bay during Silent...... read more read more
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ALPENA, Mich. — Fifty companies, representing more than 65 experiments, joined the U.S. Navy, Michigan National Guard (MING) and other agencies in Alpena, Michigan, for two weeks in July to showcase new and emerging technologies designed to allow the military to address evolving threats and stay at the forefront of new advances.
During the series of technology experiments, private companies, academic institutions and military organizations used swarms of unmanned systems to “attack” and “defend” locations in Thunder Bay, off the coast of Alpena in Lake Huron. As the two forces conducted their operations, all parties collected data on which technologies offered the greatest advantages.
“The hypothesis for Silent Swarm is to identify those systems that can outmatch and have an impact in the most challenging environments,” said Rob Gamburg, project lead for Silent Swarm at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane).
Silent Swarm 25 was coordinated by NSWC Crane with support from the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, Army C5ISR Center and the Air Force Test Center. The exercise was centered at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Heritage Maritime Center in Alpena and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (Alpena CRTC), part of the MING’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center. It is sponsored by the U.S. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Integrated Sensing and Cyber.
During the exercise, participants set up radars, antennas, and radio systems; launched unmanned aerial systems and small unmanned surface vehicles; and operated unmanned land vehicles from about a half dozen locations along the Thunder Bay shoreline and on Thunder Island in the bay. Meanwhile, the Navy, Air Force and other government observers collected data, gaining valuable insight into which technologies may offer the best offensive or defensive strategies.
For the MING, supporting Silent Swarm marked the second major technology experimentation exercise of the summer. In May, the MING co-sponsored the inaugural Uncrewed Triple Challenge (UTC) along with several other state agencies. The UTC was a sort of triathlon for unmanned vehicles, with a package transported by water across Thunder Bay, delivered by air to the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center (CGJMTC) and driven on land along a course at Camp Grayling.
“To build an agile, lethal and ready warfighter, we must continuously experiment with and adapt the best technologies the market has to offer,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Rogers, adjutant general and director of the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. “Events like Silent Swarm are critical for accelerating innovation, allowing the Joint Force to test, train with, and rapidly integrate emerging capabilities to stay ahead of evolving threats and maintain our strategic edge.”
Silent Swarm has been held at the Alpena CRTC every year since the exercise’s inception. In 2025, the size of the overall event held steady at about 500 participants, compared to the previous year, but the complexity of the experiments increased.
“We are learning from each other with every iteration, which is exactly what we hope to see,” Gamburg said.
Events such as Silent Swarm and the UTC enable rapid technological development by leveraging subject matter experts from across business, academia and the military. They also allow innovators to experiment in an operationally relevant environment, such as the waterways and air space around Alpena.
“The NADWC has become the venue of choice for experimentation and military
training,” said Col. Michael Whitefoot, commander of the Alpena CRTC. “We have built
the infrastructure and have the environmental conditions that allows for a robust
scenario, across a wide spectrum of applications.”
The MING’s NADWC includes the nearly 148,000 acres of training space at the CGJMTC and 17,000 square miles of special use military airspace at the Alpena CRTC. The NADWC provides units with training capabilities across all five warfighting domains: land, air, maritime, cyber and space.
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.20.2025 09:04 |
| Story ID: | 545885 |
| Location: | ALPENA, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 90 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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