Energetics Technology Center Welcomes New Talent Across STEM, Robotics, and Engineering 

Aberdeen, MD – September 2025 – The Energetics Technology Center (ETC) is proud to welcome a dynamic group of new team members whose skills span engineering, robotics, computer science, and STEM education. Each brings a unique perspective and a passion for innovation that will enhance ETC’s support of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), and other national security initiatives. 

Bobby Appleton, Ph.D., joins ETC as a machine learning engineer supporting NSWC Indian Head Division. Bobby has a strong background in all areas of computational materials science with an expertise in developing predictive models for energetic materials using state-of-the-art ML/AI methods. While a member of the Purdue Energetics Research Center, Bobby collaborated with various DoD and academic researchers through the Advancing Army Modernization Program – Energetic Materials (AAMP-EM) and the Energetic Materials Basic Research (EMBR) cooperative agreements. He received his B.A. in Physics from Ripon College, M.S. in Physics from California State University – Los Angeles, and Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University. Bobby supports the NSWC Indian Head Chemical Scale-Up group for optimizing synthesis processes of energetic materials.  

Howard Cho, a robotics engineer with advanced experience in autonomous navigation, recently joined ETC with a focus on robotic systems development. His work includes leading the design of a 360° perception and navigation system for Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot, utilizing real-time SLAM mapping and GPS-based hybrid autonomy. Howard’s integration of adaptive path planning, vision-language models, and multimodal robotic control showcases his cutting-edge contributions to the field. His innovations support ETC’s robotics and AI research in dynamic and GPS-denied environments. 

Caleb Harper, Ph.D., joins ETC as a chemical/mechanical engineer supporting NSWC Indian Head Division as an energetics formulator. With extensive research experience from the Purdue Energetics Research Center, Caleb has developed, tested, and evaluated experimental rocket propellants and explosive formulations. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. Caleb’s work supports critical Navy R&D in next-generation energetic materials. Outside the lab, Caleb is an avid linguist, musician, and licensed pilot. 

Sarah Kirby joins ETC as a STEM Educator, supporting the organization’s growing education and workforce development programs at ARL and NSWC Indian Head. A former science teacher in Southern Maryland, Sarah holds a B.S. in Public Health Science and a Science, Technology, and Society Scholars Citation from the University of Maryland. She is currently leading hands-on STEM summer camps and developing a cybersecurity-focused after-school program designed to introduce middle school students to digital safety, literacy, and tech careers. Her passion for education and outreach is helping shape the next generation of innovators. 

Brian Matheny serves as ETC’s Chief Financial Officer. In this role, Brian is responsible for overseeing financial strategy, corporate reporting, and fiscal management to support long-term organizational growth. Brian has more than 18 years of experience in financial planning and analysis, budgeting, and strategic leadership within the government contracting industry. He previously served as FP&A Manager at Noblis MSD (formerly McKean Defense Group) where he oversaw all key financial metrics and reporting for their Defense Mission Areas. Brian holds a B.B.A. in Finance and an MBA in Innovation both from James Madison University.  

Joan Michel joins ETC as its VP of Strategic Initiatives. Her role is to help drive growth, internal excellence, and client outcomes. She brings 25 years of experience helping federal, state, and local governments develop, plan, and implement strategic initiatives, including creating private-public partnerships, managing strategy and planning efforts, developing education and workforce programs, and providing communications and outreach expertise. She has served the defense and homeland security sector in multiple roles — as an Army civilian, a contractor, and a small business. Joan holds a master’s degree in Organization Development from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s from University of Maryland Baltimore County.  

Bridget O’Gorman joins ETC remotely from Minnesota as a Technical Engagement Lead on the BEST START program, supporting the START Center at University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul and the seven local companies awarded grants through BEST START. She has wide-ranging hands-on experience including power electronics and high-energy, pulsed power weapons systems, giving her a unique perspective on technological collaboration. Bridget holds a B.S. of Electrical Engineering from University of Minnesota and will complete her M.S. of Electrical Engineering at UST in December.  

Donovan Ramos comes to ETC as a Technology Specialist, with plans to advance into a system administrator role. A sophomore at Harford Community College studying computer engineering, Donovan previously interned with ETC and AEOP and has supported ARL’s ROS research network. His technical responsibilities include managing networking infrastructure at ETC’s Aberdeen office, responding to internal tech inquiries, and contributing to robotics R&D. A former FIRST Tech Challenge competitor, Donovan also brings hands-on experience with 3D modeling, electronics, and autonomous vehicles. 

Beth Watson provides graphic design support for ETC. Current projects include updating the ETC brand and accompanying collateral; website design and maintenance on RoboMasterminds.org, BestStart.io, Cybersynced.org, and ETCMD.com; client and internal support with graphic design of a multitude of projects including social media, exhibits, flyers, newsletters, and more. She brings over 30 years of experience in visual communication, project management, creative services, and art direction; and has supported a wide range of teams and clients across the country. Her background is rooted in a deep love of fine arts and tactile functional crafts. She is passionate about creating design solutions that are both effective and accessible. 

For more information, visit www.etcmd.com. 

Media Contact: 
Energetics Technology Center 
contactus@etcmd.com  
(301) 645-6637 

The World Of MEMS: Examples of Microelectromechanical Systems

By: Eldy Zuniga, MEMS Engineer

My first exposure to microelectromechanical systems, MEMS, came during my time at the University of Michigan. A friend got me in contact with a professor at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility for a part-time job. There I learned how to design and fabricate these devices, and to love their simplicity and the gratification of their systematic fabrication.

CPU drawing

MEMS encompass any device with components under 0.1 millimeters and down to 100 nanometers. The only other accepted criteria to define a MEMS device is that at least one of its parts has some mechanical functionality. However, they do not have to technically move.

MEMS components have four significant functions: microstructures, microelectronics, microsensors, and microactuators. The first two are typically present in most designs and function as the device’s foundations. A microstructure is any structure in a MEMS device that is itself inert or provides structural support for other components. One example is the free mass in many accelerometers. Microelectronics are instead electric built in the device typically made to interact with the device’s supporting electronics. Due to MEMS fabrication using similar CMOS techniques, most electronics components can be built into a MEMS device, such as capacitors, transistors, and resistors.

The final two functions are transducers due to their nature in changing their input energy to different output energy. The main difference between the two categories is where the electrical power is located. They take whatever force or event microsensors are designed to interact with and generate some electrical output calibrated to create a definable reading. A simple example is a classic pressure sensor. As the sensor deforms, it causes a pathway for the electrical current, which increases proportionally as the path’s resistance lowers due to the sensor’s deformation. This is an example of a mechanical input converting to an electrical output.

Microactuators are the complete opposite consuming electrical energy to generate some reaction. The ones I most commonly use are called thermal actuators. These actuators are designed using silicon’s natural heat expansion to allow controlled displacements. A current running through the actuator heats the structure, displaces it, and provides a mechanical push to another or simply acts as an obstacle.

These are simple examples of MEMS functions. Still, over the years, the variety of options and complexity the MEMS community has generated is impressive. This variety of components allows MEMS to be present in most modern devices. They are typically very modular and use similar fabrication methods to be easily updated for other improved designs.

Overall, with these four functions, MEMS can be as flexible as they can be versatile. This trend will continue as our fabrication technology improves. More designs, which for now are closed off, will become available to us. I am most interested in the inclusion of additive manufacturing, which will allow new materials and structures to be included in designing and fabrication, but that is a topic for another day.

SBIR/STTR PROGRAMS: How ETC’s Methodology is Helping The DON

By: Rachel Crespo, Engineer

The Department of the Navy (DON) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program Management Office tasked ETC to do some scoping and research and identify areas where we can improve the number of small businesses participating in the Navy’s SBIR/STTR programs. We have a particular emphasis on underrepresented companies, which in the eyes of the DON are Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDBs), Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB), and HUBZone certified small businesses.

We started this project by creating a scalable methodology that leverages data and metrics from various sources, calling it the TechFire® Magnifying Glass, also mentioned by Bingo in this issue. The tool assesses different U.S. cities’ ecosystems and picks the best positioned ones for underrepresented firms.

To determine which cities to outreach to, we focus on four key parameters:

City potential – We use the JSA ranking, done by two MIT economists that ranked 102 U.S. cities they have identified to be potential new technology hub cities;

Government investments – We look at the investments made in the area over the last ten years;

Collaborative Partners – We identify the economic development organizations in the area to see who we could partner with;

Company potential – We use census data to see how many socially/economically disadvantaged businesses exist there

Once we choose our initial shock group of cities, we can engage with the local organizations there. The data in the Magnifying Glass gets pulled into automated engagement products. We send partner organizations their Automated TechFire® Ecosystem Assessment Report, which introduces the DON SBIR/STTR programs and provides a snapshot summary of their data. We also send them a TechFire® presentation, allowing them to peak over the fence and view other cities’ in this outreach project’s data.

We have outreached to the Minority Business Development Agencies (MBDA) and/or the Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTAC) in Houston, TX, El Paso, TX, Detroit, MI, Omaha, NE, Alexandria, VA, Southwest Pennsylvania, and Montpelier, Vermont with positive results. The cities’ organizations have agreed to collaborate with us on this project. As partners, they have committed to monthly 15-min tag-up meetings where we can discuss progress and successes. These cities have agreed to cc’ ETC on any outreach activities they do. An example of an outreach activity can be the MBDA reaching out to a specific company in their network about a topic they have a matching technical capability.

They will connect us to any other local collaborators in the area and fill out a monthly highlights report where they document the outreach activities, new SBIR participation, and if any of their companies received an award. In return, we will give them multi-city monthly highlights report that will be a roll-up of all cities participating, so they can share lessons learned and best practices.

We are incredibly excited to see the effects of this project and to continue to steadily engage our city partners.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: What Do These Billion-Dollar Words Mean?

By: Will Durant, Program Manager

abstract chart

Artificial intelligence enables machines to simulate human behavior. Machine Learning is the black magic used to train machines to “learn” from existing data and solve the next complex problem. Both tools can act as the key to the complexity vault or a sledgehammer where a screwdriver would be. AI is a fantastic tool, but like any technology fad, it faces hype cycle issues.

At ETC, we are working on a tool we call “EWARE,” designed to become an end-to-end system that will automatically ingest existing, adjacent, and emergent data of relevance to the energetics delivering scientific knowledge and deep awareness back to the same community. We want to be the central connector for every piece of information our users want, and we are tackling this head-on. 

“EWARE” starts by pushing full-text PDFs, metadata structures, audio, notes, or any data type into the system. Unstructured information will go through a machine vision process to extract the different document components into raw text format, whereas the structured data parses according to its structure. The objective is to then prepare this information into a data object input for our machine learning models. 

Our effort is to build a key for weighted keyword extraction, text summarization, document type classification, material relationships with ontology development, and other capabilities. Combining these capabilities (now at different stages of development) will allow us to create deep statistical awareness of information to the user in the most targeted way. 

There are still two big questions: Where and how do we get the most valuable data? And what “keys” (ML Models) will unlock that information for our user. The data part is less challenging to identify than to incorporate, as every publisher has different licensing and data management rules. Energetics is a different puzzle to unlock than molecular chemistry and pharmaceutical formulations. We are, however, continuously searching for solutions within our academic, industry, and government partners.

My special thanks to our enthusiastic and dedicated core team working on this problem, including Aaron Imrie, Ian Michel-Tyler, Lloyd Hardy, John Fisher, Bill Wilson, Ruth Doherty, John Millemaci, and Peter Schramm. Also, to our academic partners Dr. Peter Chung at UMD and Dr. Zois Boukouvalas at AU and their teams.

The Dragon’s Jaw Bridge: An Example Of Weapon Effectiveness

By: John Fischer, Principal Scientist

One of the many challenges experienced by military weaponeers is matching available weapons with designated targets. An example of how a challenging target was finally defeated with new technology is the Thanh Hóa (aka Hàm Rồng, Dragon’s Jaw) Bridge, found in the Thanh Hóa Province of former North Vietnam.

A fighter jet in areal combat.
– Jaws of the Dragon – Illustration by Stan Stokes

– Early in the Vietnam war, the Thanh Hóa bridge was identified as a primary supply link for the Communist’s movement of men and war supplies to support South Vietnam operations. Upon designation as a high-value target, American Navy and Air Force airmen flew a total of 873 sorties against the bridge with no success. Missions against this site, which became known as Hàm Rồng, Dragon’s Jaw, resulted in the loss of 104 pilots.

In 1960, the first successful demonstration of a new technology known as the LASER occurred at the Hughes Research Lab in Malibu, CA. At the Army Missile Command’s laboratory at Redstone Arsenal, AL, scientists and engineers became aware of this device and began investigating LASER light to designate targets. Nothing similar had ever been done. Still, these innovators successfully built and demonstrated a prototype LASER designator system in 1964. While not an Army mission at the time, the DoD’s acquisition community immediately saw potential and awarded contracts to the industry for advanced prototypes. Success as an operational system was demonstrated, again, at Eglin AFB in 1966. A production acquisition soon followed it in 1967.

On 27 April 1972, Air Force F-4 Phantoms, equipped with the world’s first laser-guided bomb (LGB), flew a single mission against the Thanh Hóa Bridge. The target was destroyed with no loss of American aircraft or casualties. This story illustrates the value of science and technology and the role of the military’s technical base in developing innovative solutions to difficult problems.

As we in ETC continue to build the justification for increased investments in next- generation energetic materials, we should always remember that weapon performance and effectiveness are critical to military success. With existing precision targeting and weapon guidance, warfighters can place a weapon exactly where it needs to go. However, adversaries continue to harden their high-value assets making defeat with available weapons difficult, as was seen with the Dragon’s Jaw. We need to continue our pursuit of improving weapon effectiveness with new energetics and innovative systems design approaches.

Alarm Sounds on U.S. Military Kill Chain Capabilities

Press Release

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 29, 2021

ENERGETICS TECHNOLOGY CENTER
Luiz Lobo, Strategic Communications Leader
Phone: 202-251-5085 – llobo@etcmd.com

ALARM SOUNDS ON U.S. MILITARY KILL CHAIN CAPABILITIES
Critical New Study Addresses Energetics and Lethality as US Falls Behind China, Russia

Download the Study [PDF 79KB]

ETC – the Energetics Technology Center, has delivered compelling findings in a study commissioned by the Office of Naval Research, addressing the urgent need for the U.S. military to regain its superiority in lethality over defense rivals, China and Russia.

The study argues for a new approach in developing and using advanced energetics to regain and maintain battlefield dominance. It recommends a dramatic reshaping of energetics production and supply chains, and proposes establishing a new energetics agency with an aggressive agenda.

Energetics materials are used for explosives and propellants with multiple applications in defense, energy, and space. They range from small projectiles to large-caliber artillery, missiles of many sizes, air-dropped munitions, undersea weapons, and implosion devices that initiate nuclear weapons.

The study addresses concerns that the United States military has already ceded lethality superiority in multiple areas, in the wake of Chinese and Russian developments.

The study team, led by Dr. Theresa Mayer, Vice President of Research at Purdue University, was comprised of former military officers and subject matter experts from government, industry, and academia, who diagnosed the state of the energetics material enterprise.

The study holds a realistic set of key recommendations for decision-makers. Major General Bill Hix, a former Army’s Chief Strategy Officer, was part of the study Advisory Board and is urging immediate action, saying “Lethality is a core mission that is unique to the Defense Department that is at risk, and superior energetics is fundamental to achieving and maintaining dominance in the realm of lethality.”

Similarly, Admiral Mark Ferguson, also a member of the Study Advisory Board, notes that “We are facing near-peer adversaries who are intent on deploying capabilities superior to our own. We must retain an edge in lethality to protect and defend U.S. interests”.

Robert Kavetsky, CEO of the Energetics Technology Center, says he is confident that this study will be a catalyst for needed changes in the energetic material enterprise.

The study addressed every aspect of the process of moving energetics materials from their discovery in basic research to producing the material for use in a weapon. It found antiquated production capabilities, supply chain vulnerabilities, a research pipeline that struggled to deliver new energetics materials to weapon systems, regulatory and qualification barriers, and a depleted scientific work-force.

A parallel study was conducted by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in response to Congressional language in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Download the Study [PDF 79KB]

About Energetics Technology Center: The Energetics Technology Center provides engineering and data analytics services, policy development, and technology development to the government, academia, and private industry. ETC is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization incorporated in 2006. For additional information, please visit our website at: etcmd.com/media/news

Keywords

COST ANALYSIS OF POLICE BODY-WORN CAMERAS IN MARYLAND: A Review and Results of National Studies Applied to Maryland

By: Matthew Crowe, Economic Development Analyst and Gene Lauer, Economic Development Consultant

Download the full report here.

Executive Summary: The Energetics Technology Center, Inc. undertook a cost analysis of implementing police body worn camera programs in Maryland. Pursuant to Senate Bill 71, the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021, all county law enforcement agencies performing the police function, as well as the State Police, must implement body worn camera programs by 2025. Certain counties are required to comply as soon as 2023. While there are some random estimates of costs for a few departments provided in SB 71’s Fiscal and Policy Note, no statewide cost of implementation has been calculated previously to our knowledge. This study provides a range of such costs likely to be incurred in Maryland, collectively and by police component, for all mandated agencies, as well as for municipal police departments that are not yet, at least, covered under the provisions of SB 71.

While the study reviews and provides the results of several national studies conducted on the costs and benefits of body worn cameras, our analysis is limited to costs only, with no attempt to quantify real or perceived benefits. A number of jurisdictions have implemented full or partial body worn camera programs in the State, and the study makes no attempt to adjust for or discount costs downward for those jurisdictions which are already incurring expenses for their programs. The study provides ranges rather than one cost to reflect differences in body worn camera technology options that can be selected. The study also provides contract cost estimates on a per officer/camera basis, as well as an average personnel cost likely to be incurred to staff the program to derive a more accurate cost of implementation. Finally, the study’s cost estimates are derived from a combination of interviews, email responses and publicly available press releases and accounts, informed by the results of the aforementioned national studies.

The study estimates the average annual contract cost of a body worn camera program in Maryland, including support personnel costs, of $2445 per officer/camera. This results in a statewide total cost of $32,415,820, including municipalities. The lower and higher ends of the range of costs are $1791 and $3788 per officer/camera, respectively, reflective of the nature of the technology and storage options selected. Statewide, at the lower end of the range, costs are estimated at $24,176, 524, while costs at the higher technology option range, were all agencies to select that option, and could total as much as $50,016,752.

Finally, the study provides additional considerations regarding relative affordability issues, potential cost offsets, and future artificial intelligence/machine learning applications.

Download the full report here.

ETC In The Community: Port Tobacco River Conservancy

The Port Tobacco River Conservancy (PTRC) is a conservation advocacy group active in Charles County, Maryland. In 2001, residents near the river became alarmed over its unhealthy conditions, resulting mainly from failing septic and sewage systems. Since then, the scope of concerns for PTRC has broadened to cover issues of rainwater runoff, silting and trashing of the river, and the overall environmental health of the river watershed. 

PTRC 1

Our vision is that the Port Tobacco River and its 30,000-acre watershed will be restored to nearly pristine condition, as they were in the 1950s. PTRC’s work is about more than just environmental advocacy – it has taken on numerous conservation projects, each of which may be one small step. Still, together these projects protect and improve the ecological health of the river and its watershed. You can see the lasting impact of many of these completed projects today. Trees planted in five acres near the Northwest corner of Hawthorne Rd., at Mitchell Rd., are now over 15 feet tall and are helping to control erosion that once flowed into the Port Tobacco Creek – just one of several tree planting projects. 

Rain Gardens have been completed in a few locations – a meditation garden at Christ Church in La Plata (available to all) and educational gardens at McDonough High School and Craik Elementary School. PTRC was a significant contributor to the pavilion that Charles County erected in the Port Tobacco River Park. We plant and maintain native plant pollinator attractors at the park.

We worked with United Way of Charles County on the “Watershed Discovery and Exploration” project, providing kayak and canoeing adventures for children of low-income families. The kids learned about native plants and animals in our watershed and how to protect them. North Point High School students participated in an invasive plant control program, including hands-on training on removing these harmful plants. PTRC has just finished the construction of an “outdoor classroom” at Craik Elementary School, which it will use for instruction about the environment. These are just a few examples of the many educational and environmental activities the organization conducts. We also organize activities that promote appreciation of the beauty and importance of the river, its watershed, and its ecosystem. Each year, with the help of many students and citizen volunteers, we conduct trash cleanups along the shoreline. PTRC worked with the county to install an “Eagle Webcam” focused on a nest that is used each year by a pair of eagles named “Hope” and “Chandler.” You can live-view their nest on the PTRC webpage.  

PTRC’s success in pursuing its vision of a healthy river and environment relies on two essential components: its volunteers’ work and the financial support of sponsors such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the principal financial sponsor of our projects. PTRC is very grateful to ETC for being one of the most consistent, strongest, generous, and reliable corporate sponsors for many years!  Additional Information at: porttobaccoriver.org

PRTC 2

Is it Possible to Move the Needle? How ETC Can Make Substantial Impact On National Security?

By: Emerson Kesler

We are proud to support the United States National Security Enterprise! Those are words you will hear on videos from the ETC website interviews that go to the heart of what this organization is all about. Still, the National Security Enterprise is big, bureaucratic and it is slow to change and react. Often it is overwhelming to believe that an organization the size of ETC can make a substantial impact. I am here to tell you that it can! Sometimes, all it takes is to overcome inertia and start the ball rolling to make significant changes.  

We have just concluded a substantial study on the state of energetics. Energetics is a critical component to our national defense’s future and a necessary technology moving forward in our nation’s space and energy portfolio. The study identified seven overarching recommendations that are essential toward achieving this end. But it will not happen without establishing national advocacy, sizable financial investments, and radical changes to how the Government manages this technology. All seemingly overwhelming objectives. Is it possible to move the needle?  

Entrepreneurs have had such a significant impact on this country. Just look around us. We have phones that are mini-computers, and every app you can think of streams videos. We can search anything, record high-resolution images, communicate with multiple people, track your current and future location, and even monitor your health. It was all almost unimaginable twenty-five years ago. 

What does this have to do with ETC and Energetics? Like entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs are catalysts for change, the innovators working within a company or organization. They have many of the same traits. They create an idea or product, sell it, garner support, are proactive, become committed, and are almost obsessed with driving toward their vision. Intrapreneurs are motivated by the greater good over personal financial achievement.  

Here is the example of a small group of government employees who, as part of a master’s program assignment in the early ’90s, had the idea of using the internet to create a contracting portal. All solicitations and contracts were now in the system, potentially saving millions of dollars in distribution costs and substantially reducing contracting time. Six weeks later, and with only a $150K investment from a senior leader, the site became operational. It was the Federal Government’s first e-commerce site. That portal would soon service the Army, Navy, Commerce, State, and Interior Department before being given to the General Service Administration in 2001 and becoming FedBiz Opportunities and now SAM.Gov. Moved the needle? Absolutely! 

There are dozen similar examples within the Government, where a few individuals made significant changes with limited resources and without initial support from senior leadership. Still, they accomplished extraordinary things!

After DOT&E: Reforming Test and Evaluation for the Age of Lethality

by Dr. Marcus Jones

Executive Summary

Download this report in PDF.

This think-piece examines the implications and potential of the May 2025 directive reorganizing the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), a reform aimed at increasing agility, reducing bureaucratic friction, and focusing the Department of Defense’s test and evaluation (T&E) enterprise on its core statutory mission. The reorganization marks a turning point in the evolution of oversight and performance assessment for defense systems, one that invites fresh thinking about how best to align speed, innovation, and warfighter confidence. The urgency of this reform has now been explicitly acknowledged in Congress: the Senate’s FY26 NDAA includes a legislative proposal to establish an Alternative Test and Evaluation Pathway, initially scoped to software-intensive systems, that embodies many of the very principles advocated here: mission-focused evaluation, continuous feedback, early failure discovery, and decoupling from rigid documentation requirements.

Drawing on four decades of institutional experience, this paper explores the rationale for reimagining T&E as an integrated, continuous function grounded in mission context, powered by digital tools, and focused on fielding capabilities that are both effective and adaptable. It highlights how legacy structures, while built on good intentions, have often struggled to keep pace with the demands of software-defined systems, autonomous platforms, and modern joint operations.

The paper identifies key enablers that can help ensure the success of the current transformation: investment in digital test infrastructure, reinforcement of evaluation as a lifecycle function, preservation of transparent performance reporting, and the development of a modern T&E workforce. These steps are not about preserving legacy forms but about building a leaner, faster, and smarter T&E system aligned with emerging technologies and operational demands.

Take this link to read the entire report in PDF.