DEVCOM experts believe in the power of getting out of the scientific lab and into the dirt. That’s where Soldier Touch Points and Experimentations like Project Convergence come in.

Project Convergence is the Army’s new campaign of learning, designed to advance and integrate the Army’s contributions to the Joint Force. Multi-Domain Operations ensure the Army, as part of the Joint Combined fight, can rapidly and continuously converge effects across all domains – air, land, sea, space and cyberspace – to overmatch our adversaries in competition and conflict.

PC 20, which was held in September 2020 at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, was the largest of the continuous, structured series of demonstrations and experiments held in 2020. The Army is leveraging PC 20 as the model for PC 21.

DEVCOM was a leading member of the team of teams that executed PC 20. More than 100 DEVCOM scientists, engineers, technicians and analysts took technologies they are working on out of the lab and into the dirt to gather Soldier feedback to inform the command’s emerging Soldier-Centered design philosophy.

The DEVCOM team collected data from multiple environments spread over 1,000 miles including Fort Hunter Liggett, California; Fort A. P. Hill, Virginia; and Fort Bliss, Texas. The ARL team alone produced more than 3.8 million labeled images that were used for AI enabled capability development, as well as an additional 76 GB of data to support AI development efforts for PC 21 and beyond.

DEVCOM leverages its Joint Systems Integration Lab at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, as the primary System of Systems lab-based risk reduction, integration and test environment. The JSIL, which became fully operation in March 2020, provides a realistic and challenging “operational environment” that the Army and joint services use to prepare for the Joint All-Domain Command and Control efforts at PC 21.

PC 21 will focus on driving Joint interoperability with Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps participating in an INDOPACOM-focused vignette.