U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command | |
---|---|
Active | 1 Oct 1999 – present |
Country | United States |
Branch | United States Army |
Garrison/HQ | Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland |
Motto(s) | Truth in Testing |
Website | www |
Commanders | |
Current commander | Major General James J. Gallivan [1] |
Insignia | |
Distinctive unit insignia | |
Shoulder Sleeve Insignia | |
Beret flashes worn by the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate (left) and Airborne Test Force (right) |
The U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, or ATEC, is a direct reporting unit of the United States Army responsible for developmental testing, independent operational testing, independent evaluations, assessments, and experiments of Army equipment. [2]
ATEC is located throughout the continental United States and Hawaii. Command headquarters is located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. [3]
Consolidation of all Army developmental and operational testing commands was approved by the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army on 18 Nov. 1998. The decision led to the redesignation of the Operational Test and Evaluation Command to ATEC on 1 Oct. 1999. All major subordinate commands of OPTEC were redesignated as well with the Test and Evaluation command redesignated as the U.S. Army Developmental Test Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground; the Test and Experimentation Command was redesignated the U.S. Army Operational Test Command, Fort Hood, Texas; and the Operational Evaluation Command and the Evaluation Analysis Center were combined to form the new U.S. Army Evaluation Center located at Aberdeen Proving Ground. [3]
ATEC conducts testing for all branches of the military and maintains a large customer base that includes the National Security Agency, Joint Chiefs of Staff, allied foreign countries, and Congress. ATEC employs approximately 9,000 military, civilian and contract employees that are highly skilled test officers, engineers, scientists, technicians, researchers, and evaluators. ATEC is involved in more than 1,100 tests daily that encompass everything from individual weapons to National Missile Defense systems. The annual budget for the command is in excess of half a billion dollars. [2] [4]
Operational Test Command (OTC) locations:
Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about three miles (5 km) southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County.
United States special operations forces (SOF) are the active and reserve component forces of the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, as designated by the Secretary of Defense and specifically organized, trained, and equipped to conduct and support special operations. All active and reserve special operations forces are assigned to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
The 11th Airborne Division is a United States Army airborne formation based in Alaska.
The Military Freefall Parachutist Badge is a military badge of the United States Army and United States Air Force awarded to qualified U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force personnel as high-altitude military parachute specialists.
The United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC) is an Army Service Component Command (ASCC) of the United States Army. The command was established in 1997. The current USASMDC commander is Lieutenant General Daniel L. Karbler with Senior Enlisted Advisor Command Sergeant Major John W. Foley.
The Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) C5ISR Center, formerly the Communications-Electronics RD&E Center (CERDEC), is the United States Army information technologies and integrated systems center. CCDC C5ISR Center is headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, with activities at Fort Belvoir in Virginia and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.
Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) is a United States Army series of environmentally specific test centers with its Yuma Test Center (YTC) being one of the largest military installations in the world. It is subordinate to the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command.
A proving ground (US) is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. They are distinct from military training areas which are run by the military and intended for the routine training and exercising of troops across the terrain.
The reorganization plan of the United States Army is a modernization (2015–2028) and reorganization (2006–2016) plan of the United States Army implemented (2006–2016) under the direction of Brigade Modernization Command. This effort formally began in 2006 when General Peter Schoomaker was given the support to move the Army from its Cold War divisional orientation to a full-spectrum capability with fully manned, equipped and trained brigades; this effort was completed by the end of 2016. It has been the most comprehensive reorganization since World War II and included modular combat brigades, support brigades, and command headquarters, as well as rebalancing the active and reserve components. The plan was first proposed by the Army's 34th Chief of Staff, Eric Shinseki, in 1999, but was bitterly opposed internally by the Army.
Located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center is a direct reporting unit of Headquarters, United States Air Force. It is the Air Force independent test agency responsible for testing, under operationally realistic conditions, new systems being developed for Air Force and multi-service use.
The 53rd Wing is a wing of the United States Air Force based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The wing reports to the United States Air Force Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, which in turn reports to Headquarters Air Combat Command.
The Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC) is a Royal Air Force research and testing organisation based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. It has a training branch nearby as a lodger unit of RAF Cranwell and other branches elsewhere, including at RAF High Wycombe, RAF Brize Norton, MoD Boscombe Down, and RAF Odiham.
The Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR) is an independent and objective agency within the United States Navy for the operational testing and evaluation (OT&E) of naval aviation, surface warfare, submarine warfare, C4I, cryptologic, and space systems in support Navy and Department of Defense acquisition programs.
Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity (MCOTEA) is the independent Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) authority for the U.S. Marine Corps. MCOTEA plans, executes, and evaluates testing of material solutions against warfighter capabilities, under prescribed realistic conditions and doctrine, to determine Operational Effectiveness, Operational Suitability, and Operational Survivability (OE/OS/OSur) of all new equipment for the Corps in support of its acquisition process. MCOTEA is based at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Unlike most Marine Corps organizations, MCOTEA has a Director instead of a Commander.
The Air Armament Center (AAC) was an Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, responsible for development, acquisition, testing, and deployment of all air-delivered weapons for the U.S. Air Force. Weapon systems maintained by the center included the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, High-speed anti-radiation missile, HARM Targeting System, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, Joint Direct Attack Munition, Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, Sensor Fuzed Weapon, and the Small Diameter Bomb. The Air Armament Center was inactivated as an AFMC center on July 18, 2012, and its functions merged into the former 96th Air Base Wing at Eglin AFB. The new organization was renamed as the 96th Test Wing the same day as a subordinate command of the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
The Army Contracting Command (ACC) is a contracting services command of the United States Army. "On October 1, 2008, the Army recognized the formal establishment of the Army Contracting Command as a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. This new Army organization performs the majority of contracting work for the U.S. Army, and consists of two subordinate commands responsible for installation and expeditionary contracting, and other Army contracting elements."
The 22d Intelligence Squadron is a non-flying squadron of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to the 691st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.
The U.S. Army Joint Modernization Command, or JMC, based in Fort Bliss, Texas, gains insights from "Fight Tonight" units about future ways of fighting, future technology, and force structure during realistic live, constructive, and/or simulated training exercises. Joint Modernization Command is subordinate to the Army Futures & Concepts Center in Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; both report to the U.S. Army's newest Four-Star Command, the Army Futures Command (AFC) based in Austin, Texas.
The Camp Laguna was a sub camp of the US Army, Desert Training Center in Riverside County, California. The main headquarters for the Desert Training Center was Camp Young, this is where General Patton's 3rd Armored Division was stationed. Camp Laguna is 16 miles (26 km) miles northeast of Yuma, Arizona, off of U.S. Route 95. Trained at Camp Laguna were the 3rd Armored Divisions the 9th Armored Divisions, the 79th Infantry Divisions, 80th Infantry Divisions and 8th Infantry Division. The camp is named after the nearby town of Laguna, Yuma County, Arizona on the Colorado River. Camp Laguna was first World War II training camp built in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, it trained thousands of troop for war. Most of the land that was Camp Laguna is now part of the vast Yuma Proving Ground.
The Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory (ASL) was a research institution under the U.S. Army Materiel Command that specialized in artillery meteorology, electro-optical climatology, atmospheric optics data, and atmospheric characterization from 1965 to 1992. ASL was one of the seven Army laboratories that merged to form the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in 1992.