Army expands commercial weapons testing access to 2 Indiana training centers

The Army added two Indiana-based sites for commercial drone testing. Indiana National Guard Soldiers with the 76th Mobile Brigade Combat Team and instructors operate a laptop connected to the Switchblade 600, a loitering munition system, during training at Camp Atterbury, near Edinburgh, Ind., May 15, 2026. (Hector Tinoco/Indiana National Guard) The Army on Wednesday added two Indiana-based sites for commercial drone testing: Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center and Muscatatuck Training Center, according to a service news release. The move is part of the service’s Permissive Test Range Expansion Initiative, the Pentagon’s latest effort to streamline procurement and replenish stockpiles. “Expanding this initiative to Indiana is a win-win for national security and defense innovation,” said Maj.

Gen. Pat Gaydon, commanding general of Army Test and Evaluation Command. The two sites offer unique testing environments for evaluating drone and counter-drone technologies, the release said. Camp Atterbury offers more than 34,000 acres of secure testing space and restricted airspace up to 40,000 feet, and Muscatatuck provides a 1,000-acre site for testing drone and counter-drone systems in urban environments, according to the release. “Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck give commercial developers the ranges and airspace they need to test what actually works. The Army’s job is to get those systems into formations quickly. These ranges cut the time between a commercial system and a