History
Introduction
The Electric Vehicle Revolution will forever change the battlefield. The battlefield of tomorrow is electric, connected, and autonomous, creating a more agile and dynamic force.
The Electric and Unmanned Logistics Demonstration is the result of two years of outreach, innovation, and iterative design, culminating our efforts to understand the future through electric and unmanned logistics technology and launching into our Electric Mobility Symposium.
This upcoming event on June 23rd at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar focuses on the electrification revolution and the impacts on the future battlefield. We highlight the art and science of the possible when private industry, technology, and the military come together, and the conditions for innovation are set. The Electric and Unmanned Logistics Demonstration showcases the best of an iterative design process that allows for critical feedback and continual improvement at every stage of development and creates an optimal performance framework.
SoCal Partnerships
NavalX, the Department of Defense supported innovation and agility cell for initiatives across the Marine Corps and Navy, developed 15 Tech Bridges as collaborative spaces to bring together thought leaders and resources of industry, academia, and government. Of these, the Southern California unit, SoCal Tech Bridge, has been a galvanizing force in bridging the civilian to federal gap. More about their mission and members can be found here: SoCal Tech Bridge Page.
SoCal Tech Bridge partnered with the Marine Corps Installation Command to support its next generation installation operating concept - Installation neXt. These entities, together with corporate, federal, and local partners, have advocated technological advancement and new approaches in a variety of forums. New technologies and practices will be established both home and abroad - from secure, permanent bases to remote and forward battlefields. The technical focus areas - installation protection, resilience, mobility, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and autonomous systems - are woven throughout the collaborative efforts and vision.
ULS on the Battlefield Ops Background
Work began several years ago under the aegis of the Future Unmanned Logistics Systems (ULS) Energy Logistics Enabling Distributed Operations program, or FUELED Ops, sponsored by the Operational Energy Capability Innovation Fund (OECIF) under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.
The goal of FUELED Ops is to bridge the technological visionaries of the private sector to our nation’s military leaders and planners - focusing on leveraging commercial innovation and technological advancements to better understand how operational energy and unmanned logistics systems might improve effectiveness on future battlefields. Today, Installation neXt and the SoCal Tech Bridge leverage the Southern California ecosystem assets of installations, industry, and research to unlock emerging technology through non-traditional partnerships.
Next Strategy
SoCal Tech Bridge’s recent efforts have matured into a simple and effective operating model. The regional Tech Bridge team includes three key roles to execute pilots, demonstrations and technology implementation, and includes:
NextStrategy - stakeholder engagement, NextSource - focused on technology visioning and the art of the possible provided through commercial technology companies innovation, and NextStep - transition to government through dedicated government principal investigators. Information flows freely in this model and accelerates learning and problem solving through collaboration, while keeping the focus of effort on the needs of each group: stakeholders, government transition, and commercial technology partners. This allows a bottom-up approach to set up innovation - allowing the visioning from commercial technology providers to define the art of the possible and then informing requirements for key federal, state, and local government stakeholders while also determining the engineering to inform technology transfer.
Operational Philosophy and ALEC Principles
The SoCal Tech Bridge NextStrategy model has an operational philosophy that is a profound paradigm shift from traditional Research and Development (R&D) practices. In the past, the Department of Defense has driven the train; shaping and setting technological program goals and vision based on its overarching planning considerations and objectives. In turn, the efforts of the commercial market branched from this foundation. This is no longer a viable strategy as commercial R&D outpaces the federal sector at a ratio of 4:1.
Commercial industry has a speed and agility that far surpasses its federal industry counterpart. It is driven by a capitalist market system that quickly delineates winning and losing propositions and acts accordingly: good ideas are rewarded and bad ideas die. SoCal Tech Bridge and NextStrategy understand this rapidity and clarity of action within the commercial environment are a much better fomenter of innovation. The defense industry’s utilization of commercial R&D to shape its market goals will be both a much needed catalyst and disrupter to traditional models.
SoCal Tech Bridge’s efforts of the past several years have been shaped by four principles, specifically Autonomous, Logistics, Energy, and Connected, otherwise referred to as ALEC. Consideration of these key components is in every aspect of program processes, from issue identification through solution transition. This interactive approach is leading to the development of a new business model between the Marine Corps and the commercial sector. Virtual efforts are converging with real world demonstration, creating robust, interactive feedback loops that will revolutionize future acquisition processes.
ULS on the Future Battlefield
Over the past two years, two lines of effort allowed development of real-life and simulated technology demonstrations. The first, led by Robotic Research, provides a demonstration of how current electric vehicle platform technologies that are connected and have autonomy applied might support future battlefield logistics and energy distribution missions. The second line of effort, co-led by CANA Advisors and Group W, Inc., provides a simulated demonstration for how current and forecasted commercial platforms might, together, perform on the future battlefield.
This effort began with in-depth market research of the existing unmanned logistics and energy environment. The team leveraged results of the market research and used modeling, simulation, and analysis of new capabilities and concepts of employment to understand the feasibility and operational potential of commercial innovation. The culmination of this first year’s effort was a virtual demonstration day and design think workshop in 2020, which included a demonstration of combined autonomous, driverless ground and aerial systems provided by Robotic Research. Information about each of these systems can be viewed here.
Smart Installations - MCAS Miramar
This progressive effort paralleled the promotion of smart installations, where technology is being used to improve programs and processes aboard military installations. Opportunities on MCAS Miramar have included the pilot testing of autonomous vehicles, drones, and commercial platforms; leveraging the military base’s hybrid power grid to augment city power during shortages; providing enhanced base security and resiliency operations; and comprehensive resiliency and mobility studies and exercises that include military and civilian stakeholders. The end state is to increase efficiency, improve operations, conserve resources, and support testing and development for outside deployment. MCAS Miramar is the first 5G enabled military base in the United States, and a pilot site for 5G technologies. The base is designated a 5G Living Lab, deployed in partnership with Verizon, where new ideas and technologies from the private sector can be tested, evaluated, and refined. These will be on full display during event day. Learn more about them here.
Electric and Unmanned Logistics Demonstration Day
The Electric and Unmanned Logistics Demonstration Day validates the primacy of the ALEC principles - Autonomous, Logistics, Electric, and Connected - that are interwoven throughout the NextStrategy iterative design. The opening narrative is “The Battlefield of Tomorrow is Electric and Connected,” with a demonstration of technologies that make up an electric, connected, ecosystem. Showcased within this is the actualization of dynamic and all-electric autonomous logistics delivery on the battlefield, connected by cellular technology. Next, “The Battlefield of Tomorrow is Autonomous and Transforming Logistics” sets the theme for the remainder of the day with powerful insights into how the future electric battlefield - enabled by unmanned systems and mobile electric power - might evolve using commercial technologies and market forecasts coupled with results from simulation models. The close of Day 1 provides inspiration with an immersive experience. Visitors can touch and feel and see the future as it rolls, drives, and flies past.
The event on June 23rd at MCAS Miramar is an unparalleled platform to illustrate the synergistic possibilities of NextStrategy. The result - innovative ideas that become great designs that work make this an essential and vital even