Army expands test range initiative to Indiana National Guard sites, boosting commercial drone testing options

The 5th Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit, Acting Secretary of the Army Adam R. Telle announced a significant addition to the Army's Permissive Test Range Expansion Initiative. Through a partnership between the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) and the Indiana National Guard, two locations — Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center and Muscatatuck Training Center — have been designated as premier, permissive sites available for commercial testing.

This strategic collaboration opens Indiana's extensive, specialized testing environments to private sector defense innovators, specifically targeting the rapid development and testing of drone and counter-drone technologies.

“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary of War Hegseth, the Army is throwing open our doors to American innovators and tearing down bureaucratic red tape,” Telle said. “We are accelerating our relationship with American ingenuity, acquiring cutting-edge capabilities and integrating autonomous technologies to ensure the U.S. Army remains the most lethal and dominant land force in human history.”

Under the initiative, commercial vendors can bypass complex administrative hurdles and gain access to military ranges to conduct their internal research, development and system hardening. Private companies can easily request access to these Indiana test environments via the Army test range portal, testrange.army.mil. Once a request is submitted, the dedicated ATEC private industry concierge team will work with the vendor and Indiana National Guard to coordinate testing schedules and requirements.

“Indiana is where innovation, military readiness and next-generation testing come together, and this designation reinforces the role our state is ready to play in the future of defense modernization,” said Maj. Gen. Larry Muennich, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard. “Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck offer the infrastructure, capabilities and realistic environments needed to bring industry innovators and military operators together to advance emerging technologies. Our partnership with the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command creates exciting opportunities to build on these strengths, expand testing and evaluation capabilities, and accelerate the delivery of innovative solutions to our warfighters.”

The sites selected for inclusion provide specialized capabilities to facilitate drone and counter-drone testing. Camp Atterbury offers more than 34,000 acres of secure space with a dedicated restricted airspace corridor up to 40,000 feet. The Muscatatuck Training Center is a 1,000-acre developmental testing site featuring configurable urban infrastructure, which allows testing of drone and counter-drone navigation and tracking systems within complex physical and structural layouts.

"Expanding this initiative to Indiana is a win-win for national security and defense innovation,” said Maj. Gen. Pat Gaydon, commanding general of ATEC. “We are providing the physical space and the robust, restricted airspace that commercial developers need to mature their systems. Our ATEC concierge team is fully integrated with the Indiana National Guard to ensure that private industry has a seamless, collaborative pipeline to build, test and deliver resilient technologies to our warfighters."

Commercial developers seeking to use the newly added Indiana sites or existing permissive ranges can submit reservation requests now via testrange.army.mil. While submitting a request does not guarantee a vendor’s desired location or timeline due to capacity limits, the concierge team will work closely with all applicants to find suitable testing locations and windows.

“Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck give commercial developers the ranges and airspace they need to test what actually works. The Army’s job is to get those systems into formations quickly. These ranges cut the time between a commercial system and a Soldier who can use it,” said Gen. Christopher LaNeve, Vice Chief of Staff and Acting Chief of Staff of the Army.

“This expansion reflects the Army’s commitment to warfighting procurement at the speed of business, and I am deeply grateful to Senator Young, Senator Banks, and the Indiana delegation for making this possible,” said Telle. “By marrying Indiana’s premier test range capabilities with ATEC’s white-glove concierge service, we are dramatically reducing timelines for commercial disruptors to secure access to test range spaces not readily available in the commercial sector, and deliver Soldier-ready products faster. This is how we equip our warfighters with every competitive advantage they need to remain the most lethal and capable fighting force the world has ever seen. When American Soldiers step onto any piece of ground, they own it.”