The US Army is embracing a wave of new weapons and systems, from drones to command-and-control platforms, and putting these experimental capabilities directly in the hands of soldiers during training events.
That approach yields valuable lessons and gives soldiers hands-on experience with new technologies. The push and pull of experimentation and training, however, can create tension between testing unfamiliar gear and preparing units for the broader demands of warfare.
At Fort Irwin in California, the Army recently conducted its Project Convergence Capstone exercise, a large-scale experiment built into a training event in the brutal heat of…
