Photo By William Kemp | Over 100 joint warfighters from across the country had the opportunity to get hands-on...... read more read more
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By Capt. Emily Seaton
FORT BELVOIR, Va. – Over 100 joint warfighters from across the country had the opportunity to get hands-on experience with and give direct feedback on the latest developments in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense technology at the Science & Technology CBRN-Capability Operational User Trial 2026 (SCOUT 26) at Camp Dawson, West Virginia, from March 20 to March 26, 2026.
As a Joint Science and Technology Office sponsored event, SCOUT 26 had three distinct but integrated lines of effort: the SCOUT field experiment, the laboratory developed test micro-experiment and the concepts crucible. Each of these were designed to scout new innovations, validate key bio-manufacturing concepts and provide data-driven insights to the enterprise.
The SCOUT field experiment was a large-scale, scenario-based field experiment that allowed warfighters to employ individual prototypes in realistically simulated missions to assess integration potential.
“I really enjoyed actually getting hands-on with this technology,” expressed U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Victoria Ruhl, a CBRN defense specialist. “Everything on the table seemed super great, everything seemed super intuitive…going into the field and actually using the equipment is sort of where everything breaks down; that's where you find out, okay, this actually is quite difficult to use.”
She went on to explain that the field experience allowed her to discover if the equipment was functional when combined with things such as trying to hit the buttons on the device while wearing her thick gloves or trying to carry and keep track of all the equipment. The opportunity also gave her a chance to see how her peers would use the equipment.
The LDT micro-experiment was a focused technical experiment to evaluate the capability to produceassays for novel biological threatsin an expeditionary lab environment.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brandon Pybus, a biochemist with the Army’s 1st Global Field Medical Laboratory, stated in other words, “this is an experiment, a proof of concept, to go from an unknown biological threat to a lab developed diagnostic test in a far forward setting,”
Pybus described the impact of this type of technology as enabling from a deployed location the ability to treat what would otherwise be an unknown biological threat and then mitigate risks of infection. It would also arm medical providers and commanders with an understanding of the threat to be able to quickly develop or request countermeasures.
The concepts crucible was a venue for warfighters to provide direct feedback on emerging S&T concepts and early-stage prototypes. Early engagement with product end-users helps de-risk and accelerate the acquisition process.
“The crucible is an event that allows us to demonstrate some concept technologies to the warfighters from different branches of the military and solicit feedback on how that technology may be used in their hands,” described Dr. David Glasbrenner, a senior scientist at Battelle. “Different branches are going to use your technology differently … it's important to have events like this where your speed in one week, getting everyone's feedback at the early Technology Readiness Levels stage allows you to develop a technology that's broader use instead of very niche use.”
SCOUT 26 is not a stand-alone event. It evolved out of an annual chemical biological operational analysis field experiment and will now be tied into future engagements as a larger campaign.
“These are incremental growth opportunities that inform the next event, so we don't have to wait a year or 18 months for the next event to get the information that we need,” expanded Dr. Robert Kristovich, the director of the Joint Science and Technology office for CBRN Defense at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. “We’re looking at a campaign where we're constantly taking the information from one, feeding it into the next, and it's a feedback loop that's going to accelerate the entire process.”
To wrap up the sentiment of the event, Stephanie Calderwood, medical diagnostics branch chief at JSTO, added, “I think this really shows the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Joint Science Technology Office's focus and commitment to, getting capability that helps our warfighters in real time at the point of need... and it could potentially save a lot of lives on the back end.”
For more information on SCOUT26 and the Joint Science & Technology Office, visit http://www.dtra.mil.
| Date Taken: | 03.30.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.30.2026 15:38 |
| Story ID: | 561583 |
| Location: | VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 29 |
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