Pennsylvania National Guard Becomes Hub for Pentagon's Drone Dominance Program

## Drone Dominance Hub The Pennsylvania National Guard's Fort Indiantown Gap has become a key location for the Pentagon's Drone Dominance program. The facility has been selected as the primary new-equipment training site for drones chosen in the U.S. Department of War's first Drone Gauntlet competition. This selection highlights the Pennsylvania National Guard's pre-eminent position in military drone development. ## Counter-UAS Training In addition to its work on developing the latest generation of attack drones, Fort Indiantown Gap is also a site for training soldiers in counter-drone tactics. The Guard soldiers have designed a mock village of repurposed shipping containers to mimic urban environments where they may be required to conduct counter-UAS operations. Their target drones are largely 3D-printed fixed-wing flyers that are inexpensive to produce and easy to replace. ## Drone Testing and Development The TIF team at Fort Indiantown Gap has tested or is in the process of testing several qualified UAS systems, including the Neuros Archer, the HALO Perses, and the Auterion SLM-10. These drones are primarily first-person-view (FPV) quadcopters with propeller lengths ranging between five and 10 inches. They generally fall into the category of attritable drones, meaning they're relatively inexpensive and able to be produced and used in mass quantities for single-use missions. ## Convenient Location Fort Indiantown Gap is well situated to serve as a central hub for military drone research and development. It is located about 100 miles from the Tobyhanna Army Depot, the electronics maintenance and logistics facility from which the new drone systems will be fielded out to operational Army units. The National Guard base is also about two hours away from both the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey and Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. According to Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nathan Shea, the TIF's officer-in-charge, the selection of Fort Indiantown Gap as the primary testing site for the Army's drone acquisition program is an indication of the Pennsylvania National Guard's pre-eminent position in military drone development. "I would say it's definitely a unique case. The biggest thing is: Pennsylvania has a very high level of experience in this and we've been at the forefront of a lot of these mission sets," he said. Shea also noted that the facility's location and resources make it an ideal location for handling supply chain issues and supporting drone test pilots and instructors. "At my facility, we have our own airspace right out back," he said. "Fort Indiantown Gap has a massive training area, and we have the restricted airspace that goes up to 26,000 feet. That really enables us to do the majority of this stuff and with greater flexibility.