Long-Standing Navy Program Accelerates Drone, AI, and Technology Development Under Field Conditions
he roar from cutting-edge drone technology filled the sky above the Naval Postgraduate School’s (NPS) latest Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event in May at Camp Roberts in central California. Over a hundred flights tested new drones, artificial intelligence (AI), combat operations, swarms, countermeasures, sensors, navigation, communications, and more.
As a large jet-powered drone slammed into its target, a laser weapon system (LWS) destroyed quadcopter after quadcopter at another live fire range at NPS’ JIFX. Dozens of companies from across the defense spectrum also ran experiments to bring their innovations closer to solving national defense challenges and becoming operationally deployed.
For more than two decades, small and large businesses wanting to expedite the development of their emerging defense technologies and get them operational as soon as possible have experimented at JIFX and forerunner field experimentation programs. Early campaigns by NPS research centers also provided the proving grounds that enabled JIFX to flourish, even as the threats to national security have continually evolved.
In fact, all the way back in 1998, the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS), founded in 1993, converted the dirt strip at Camp Robert’s McMillan Airfield into a 3,500-foot long and 65-foot wide concrete runway dedicated to drones—uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV)—and built the supporting facilities. This airfield is home to JIFX.