Advancing Joint Experimentation to Solve Operational Problems

This event is cohosted with the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technology Institute.

The United States military faces an increasingly complex and interconnected battlespace, where success depends on a force’s ability to rapidly integrate joint forces and leverage innovative operational concepts across domains. As adversaries advance their capabilities, the Department of Defense needs new ways to prototype and experiment with joint systems-of-systems that transcend traditional service boundaries.

To address these challenges, the DoD has launched the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) to drive joint experimentation and capability development.

This initiative is designed to help bridge the gap between (a) the service-specific priorities and capabilities that provide the backbone of the US force and (b) emerging opportunities for truly integrated joint solutions, including technology-enabled operational concepts and systems-of-systems that can address the critical operational problems combatant commanders face.

Join the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technology Institute and Hudson’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology for a symposium exploring the future of joint experimentation for new technology-enabled operational concepts.

This event will examine:

• The challenges of executing joint-facing programs and experiments
• Strategies for developing new technology-enabled operational concepts
• The need to balance service priorities with critical joint needs
• Combatant commands’ role in driving joint experimentation
• Lessons from RDER and other joint experimentation initiatives
• How industry is enabling these activities

By bringing together perspectives from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and combatant commands, this symposium aims to shed light on the path forward for joint experimentation to solve operational problems in an era of strategic competition.