U.S. Army Opens Five Weapons Test Ranges, Promising Access Within 30 Days
A new online portal is now the front door to five military test ranges. A private developer can submit a request without holding an existing federal contract, after which an Army representative helps identify an appropriate site and testing window. Through this range-access initiative, the U.S. Army intends to place companies on a range within 30 days rather than leave them waiting 12 to 18 months.
That is a substantial scheduling change for developers of missiles, drones, counter-drone equipment and related systems. It could let more companies generate the test data needed to compete for military work. But 30-day access is not the same as 30-day approval, certification or production. The initiative attacks one identifiable bottleneck in a much longer acquisition chain.
One portal, a concierge and five ranges
The four immediately accessible U.S. locations are Camp Grayling in Michigan, Camp Shelby in Mississippi, Dugway Proving Ground in Utah and West Cibola Range, a newly opened component of Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The fifth is the Multidomain Training Area range complex in Morocco.
Covenant Industries has already used the scheduling system to test its Anthem missile in Morocco. Company executive Abby Denburg said Covenant expects to begin delivering production-ready assets to its manufacturing line at the start of 2027. That timeline illustrates the distinction between securing a test slot and establishing a repeatable production system: even a developer that reaches the range quickly still has engineering, qualification and manufacturing work ahead.
The concierge model matters because range access is not simply a calendar reservation. A useful test requires a facility with suitable physical space, instrumentation, airspace and environmental conditions. Centralized coordination can match an applicant to available infrastructure instead of forcing it to navigate several installations separately.
Capacity remains a boundary. Submitting a request does not guarantee a company its preferred range or date. The Army says its concierge team will help find a suitable location and window when the first choice is unavailable. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has said more sites could be added, which would be important if easier entry generates more demand than the initial five locations can absorb.
Faster access broadens competition, but not without costs
Removing the requirement for an existing government contract potentially gives smaller and nontraditional suppliers a more direct route to demonstrate equipment. That can improve competitive access by allowing hardware performance not an established contracting relationship to become an earlier filter in the process.
Yet companies are expected to fund their own development, travel and related accommodations. That protects taxpayers from subsidizing every preliminary concept, but it also favors developers with enough capital to arrive with test-ready hardware. The system opens the gate more widely; it does not make participation free or ensure that every qualified small company can afford the trip through it.
Nor should faster scheduling weaken the standards applied after a demonstration. Stacie Pettyjohn of the Center for a New American Security has said registration, facility certification and cybersecurity requirements can make qualification of a new defense supplier take as long as two years. Those processes can look slow beside a 30-day range target, but they address different questions: whether a product performs, whether its producer can safely handle sensitive work and whether the supplier can meet government requirements consistently.
Safety and performance testing also remain essential. A successful demonstration is a data point, not proof that equipment is ready for widespread military use. Repeated trials, documented results and production-representative hardware are necessary to distinguish a promising prototype from a dependable system. Cybersecurity review is similarly consequential for connected drones and digitally controlled equipment, even when the underlying vehicle or weapon has performed as intended at a range.
Production is the longer constraint
The Defense Innovation Unit’s Ground-Based Affordable Mass Challenge shows the pace officials are seeking elsewhere in the pipeline: demonstrations within 60 to 90 days, production scaling within 12 to 18 months and a target unit cost below $250,000 at scale. The targets also show why range reform cannot solve acquisition alone. Manufacturing capacity, supplier qualification and cost control continue after testing.
Army officials said the range initiative was not a response to disputed reports about munitions inventories. Its confirmed scope is narrower and measurable: give more prospective suppliers an opportunity to test sooner. The next meaningful measure will not be the number of portal requests, but how many companies complete credible tests, clear certification and convert working prototypes into repeatable production without relaxing safety, cybersecurity or performance standards.
By David Whitaker — Associate editor for AMI’s aerospace and drone systems desk, translating flight systems, aircraft programs, spaceflight, and UAV developments into accessible technical stories.
