The Military of Tomorrow Starts Here

At the new George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex, The Texas A&M University System has created a leading site for modern military research.

By Jeannie Ralston

Photos provided by the College of Engineering

October 11, 2021

For many reasons, Ross Guieb is determined that The Texas A&M University System’s George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex (BCDC) achieves its mission. An innovation hub like no other in the country, the BCDC promises to be good for the nation, the state and the university. But maybe most importantly for him, it promises to be good for his family.

Guieb, who recently retired as a colonel with the Army Futures Command to become executive director of the BCDC, has twin sons in the Corps of Cadets who will commission in two years. The work conducted at the complex on the RELLIS Campus—Texas A&M’s 2,000-acre integrated education, research and testing institution—will ensure that his sons and all other members of the military are safer and more effective as they perform their jobs of protecting the United States.

“I’ve got skin in the game,” Guieb said. “If we have to fight, I want it to be unfair—unfair on our side. The BCDC is all about gaining overmatch.” This means that Texas A&M has become one of the leading sites in the U.S. for researching, designing, testing and building the military of tomorrow.

At the George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex, military researchers will design and test experimental technologies and materials for use in the national security industry.

A Thoroughly Modern Military

During the past 20 years, as the U.S. has been almost wholly focused on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, modernization has taken a back seat. The Army last modernized in 1980. To address this issue, the Pentagon created the Army Futures Command (AFC) in 2018, located in Austin. At the time, Guieb was serving as an executive officer at AFC. Part of his job was to visit campuses around the country to determine what capabilities universities could offer in the modernization effort.

The AFC’s first visit was to Texas A&M, and while meeting with Chancellor John Sharp ’72 and Dr.
M. Katherine Banks, then the dean of the College of Engineering and vice chancellor of engineering and national laboratories, the Army received a proposition it couldn’t refuse. Texas A&M offered to build a highly instrumented testing complex where the Army, other universities and private sector partners could demonstrate experimental technologies intended to improve national security.

With $85 million from the Texas A&M System, $50 million from the State of Texas and $65 million from the Army Futures Command, the project broke ground in October 2019. The BCDC includes a combat vehicle testing ground, a laser lab and a one-kilometer-long testing facility—all to research hypersonic vehicles, lasers, materials for withstanding extreme-velocity impacts, maneuverability of air and ground vehicles, and resilient computer networks that allow soldiers to share up-to-the-moment battlefield information.

The complex is “really all about what we believe at Army Futures Command—that America’s tomorrow is worth protecting and it’s worth starting that today, right here, right now,” said Gen. John Murray, AFC, at the 2019 groundbreaking ceremony. Banks, now president of Texas A&M and vice chancellor for national security strategic initiatives, said that the Texas A&M System “is perfectly positioned to accelerate Army modernization through a one-of-a-kind combination of expertise, facilities, culture and organization.”

With the Bush School of Government and Public Service—and the final resting places of George H.W. and Barbara Bush—located on campus, it made sense to name the facility after the 41st president. “What we’re doing is the same thing that he spent his entire life doing: improving national security,” Guieb said.

Speed Saves

In a high-tech world, where breakthroughs seem to come every day, quick decision-making is critical. The Army knows that to ensure military prowess, combat and deterrence technology development must mimic the pace of software creation in Silicon Valley.

Within the Hypervelocity Impact Lab is one of the many research facilities found at the BCDC.

Underlying all work at the BCDC is a concept called “agile technology development,” which is meant to speed up the period from basic discovery to viable product or capability through the iterative process. That means a constant loop of testing, refining and re-evaluating in various physical conditions, followed by more testing, refining and re-evaluating.

“A regular lab doesn’t have fog and smoke and blowing wind and dust, but we will,” said Nancy Currie-Gregg, a former U.S. Army colonel and NASA astronaut who is leading the agile technology initiative as the BCDC’s deputy director and chief technology officer. “And we’ll have everything we need to measure and evaluate how products withstand conditions analogous to those faced by warfighters.”

The initiative will not only save time but money as well; it’s cheaper to tweak along the way than to get far down the road before discovering a problem. “We don’t want to get to the end of a project and have our partner say that’s not quite what we wanted,” Guieb said. “This is all about getting things out of the labs and into the users’ hands as fast and efficiently as we can.”

Building a Workforce

Texas A&M’s military history plays a crucial role in the BCDC mission. One goal is to encourage more students to serve their country by working in national security fields. “There are a thousand ways to contribute,” Guieb said. “You don’t have to wear a uniform like I did. You can be a scientist or engineer doing work that’s supporting national security.”

For example, Guieb said, only ~40% of the 2,500 members of the Corps of Cadets commission into the military. The other ~60% could be directed to government research labs or defense contractors.

“You might have an engineering student who thinks of going to work for Tesla,” Guieb said. “But we want them to consider this: Do you want to work for Tesla or do you want to work on the next-generation combat vehicle? You’d be building something that saves lives.” And anyone who knows a soldier (or two) knows this is the highest priority.

To widen the pool of those interested in combat and deterrence technology, the BCDC seeks to create 25 fellowships that will allow students to pursue advanced degrees in key fields while working as researchers at the site. Each gift of $1 million will endow one fellowship and has an impact both small and large: not only helping a student further their career but also helping the nation remain secure.

BAM: The Jewel in the Crown

The Ballistic, Aero-Optics and Materials Test Range, otherwise known as BAM, is the centerpiece of the BCDC and the capability that truly makes it unique in the national defense picture. BAM enables three critical testing capabilities: one for hypersonic aerothermodynamics, one for materials exposed to extreme environments, and a third for laser or signal propagation effects.

When complete, the testing range will be the longest, most technologically sophisticated in the nation. Prototypes in the one-kilometer-long instrumented range will be accelerated to velocities up to 15 times the speed of sound, and the instrumentation is designed to measure and evaluate high-energy lasers, hypersonic flight and the hypersonic impact of projectiles on a variety of materials. Currently, the longest such testing range in the U.S. is 300 meters. “Exquisite” is how Guieb describes BAM’s design and capabilities.

The BAM Test Range will be built in two phases, each being 500 meters long. The enclosed range will enable a well-controlled environment—simulating mist or dust, for example—so that researchers can measure experiments precisely in different environments. The kilometer length allows for large-scale prototype testing before moving to more expensive full-scale testing.

“To do one hypersonic flight test costs about $200 million,” Guieb said. “We will use BAM to learn as much as we can by doing thousands of iterations of tests and simulations. When we do the real one, we will have learned so much that we’re not wasting taxpayer money.”

Other BCDC Components:

The Research Integration Center

is a three-story building completed last month that will be the intellectual hub of innovation and the command center to direct and evaluate testing on the BCDC grounds and atther facilities. Among the features that make the facility a researcher’s dream are a wall of video feeds, thermal imagery, data streams, analytics and map overlays for real-time analysis. This visual presentation can speed up test insights and help identify needed design changes.

In addition to storing and curating data, this facility will house offices for researchers and U.S. Army personnel, laboratories, a machine shop and spaces for product development.

The Innovation Proving Ground

comprises an off-road test area, a mobility challenge course and a subterranean lab. The outdoor test range includes a variety of terrain, ramps, soil types and physical obstacles and enables researchers to conduct highly instrumented experiments on a wide range of prototypes. The tracking systems used include differential GPS, broadcast receivers, air surveillance radar, thermal imaging, visual tracking and a small-scale weather station.

In the first demonstration on the range in 2019, two ground vehicles successfully maneuvered autonomously through an off-road challenge course, while a Jeep and air vehicle also operated autonomously by communicating with each other. Many other autonomous vehicle tests have followed.

The Technology Innovation and Modernization Catalyst

will be a 20,000-square-foot, high-tech incubator, to be completed by fall 2023, where civilian inventors, entrepreneurs and other innovators will base themselves. The building will be home to an entire entrepreneurial ecosystem, offering startup space, business services—such as intellectual property strategy and management—and help connecting innovators with potential partners.

“Those who come here,” said Dr. John Hurtado, former deputy director and chief technology officer of the BCDC and now the interim vice chancellor and dean of engineering and the interim agency director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, “will find everything they need to have the absolute best shot at success.”

To learn how you can play a role in advancing the George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex, contact Jay Roberts '05, assistant vice president for development for the College of Engineering, at the bottom of this page. You can also request a Giving Guide below to learn more about other opportunities to support Aggieland.

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