WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. – Testers from Fort Hood’s U.S. Army Operational Test Command completed a Limited User Test the last week of September on equipment and technology that has drawn the attention of the Army’s senior leadership.

Early Infantry Brigade Combat Team systems include the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, the Class 1 Unmanned Aerial System, the Network Integration Kit and two types of Unattended Ground Sensors. These systems are designed to do everything from providing situational awareness for force protection to target acquisition to network connectivity, according to briefing documents.

Data harvested during the LUT will help testers assess the effectiveness, suitability and survivability of the equipment, according to USAOTC’s Maneuver Test Directorate director Col. Steve Duke. Data is collected in three categories, he said: performance, manpower/personnel integration and reliability/availability/maintainability.

“We collect this via instrumentation, Soldier surveys and observer controller observations,” Duke said. “We had more than 1,500 Soldiers, DA civilians and contractors participating in this test.”

MTD’s test officers and test support personnel, along with soldiers from the Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Army Evaluation Task Force and Fort Bliss’ 1st Armored Division, worked together to build test scenarios that were as “operationally accurate and realistic as possible,” Duke said.

Soldiers from 1st Armored Div.’s 5th Brigade conducted attack, defend and stability missions over desert, mountainous and urban terrain at WSMR. Offering two simulated Afghan villages encompassing both mountains and caves, WSMR was selected as the test site because of its robust operational environment, according to Duke.

AETF Soldiers who had spent the last six weeks dressing like insurgents and living in the two villages provided the opposing forces component of the test scenarios. The scenarios were designed to replicate “the actions of enemy forces in Operation Enduring Freedom as closely as possible,” Duke said.

“We’re primarily looking at whether the system under test enhances the IBCT’s ability to conduct missions, protect itself and preserve combat power,” Duke said. “The overall question is ‘Does this system contribute effectively to the IBCT’s operational capabilities?’”

General officers and senior executive service members from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Army staff, TRADOC, Program Executive Office, WSMR, Fort Bliss, Fort Hood, Government Accounting Office and the ATEC were given an up-close look at the LUT Sept. 17, according to Maj. Samuel Ancira, a USAOTC Fires Test Directorate test officer who served as the distinguished visitors/media day planner and coordinator.

“We also had several defense trade journalists who spent the entire day being briefed and touring the MOUT villages,” Ancira said. “They not only saw the equipment going through its paces, but they also got to talk directly with soldiers using the equipment.”

The final action on the LUT will be for USAOTC to provide an operational test report to senior Army leadership in support of an acquisition decision, Duke said.