August 31, 2017
Crane Collaborates with Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck Urban Training Center
CRANE, Ind. – Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) hosted the ANTX 2017 Innovation and Sensor Fusion event Aug. 29 – 31. at NSWC Crane, Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana and Muscatatuck Urban Training Center (MUTC) in Butlerville, Indiana.
Government civilians as well as industry and academic partners participated in a collaborative urban environment with experimentations and a technical interchange meeting focused on innovation, sensor data fusion and distributed weapon control.
“ANTX 2017 provides the opportunity for the Navy to collaborate with various partners to demonstrate technologies in a real time urban environment, said Patricia Herndon, NSWC Crane’s Department Director for Special Warfare and Expeditionary Systems Department. This unique urban environment affords participants to collect data that will be utilized to improve capabilities that are delivered directly to the Warfighter.”
“Events like this allow for synthesis of existing technologies and ideas, which will eventually lead to the creation of improved capabilities for the Navy and the nation,” said Monica Hutchins, Deputy Director for the
Office of Strategy and Innovation, Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy (Management). “Efforts at the ANTX event closely align with the Secretary of the Navy’s strategic priorities, and we wanted to help support those efforts in every possible way. This was a valuable investment for us because it will lead to the innovative ideas and solutions our nation needs to maintain our advantage.”
The ANTX provides a low-risk environment in which scientists and engineers may evaluate their technological innovations at the research and development level before their technologies become militarized and integrated at the operational level. ANTX is an annual multi-day event to demonstrate future Navy technologies in action today. Naval warfare centers, universities, and industry partners have been invited to showcase their latest unmanned systems and related technologies.
In 2015, Crane hosted an Innovation and Sensor Fusion Experimentation Event which generated many successes. With the successful creation of an environment that enabled innovation, a network was established that continues to provide an avenue for more complex experimentations, expand relationships with other government and academic labs, and rapid prototype solutions which have led to several patent applications.
“We are very grateful to our partners at the Indiana National Guard who have worked tirelessly at MUTC and Camp Atterbury to make this exercise a reality,” said Herndon. “Without their support, we would not have the ability to demonstrate these technologies in realistic environment.”
The Atterbury-Muscatatuck boundaries encompass more than 35, 000 acres of training and maneuver space. Within Johnson, Bartholomew, and Brown counties is Camp Atterbury, near Edinburgh, Indiana, and armed forces reserve training area operated by the Indiana National Guard.
Atterbury’s Advanced Urban Training Facility, MUTC, located in Jennings County near Butlerville, Indiana, is a unique interagency and intergovernmental training venue, which occupies the grounds of the former Muscatatuck State Hospital.
NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with focus areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today’s warfighter.