New U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground range open to private industry for rapid innovation

Unlike most military installations, U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground’s (YPG) primary purpose is not to train troops for combat, but to test the equipment they use to ensure it works as it should.

With a unique mission, YPG’s funding model is also unique. Perhaps 30% of YPG’s funding comes from an allocation from the Department of the Army to cover overhead expenses.

The remaining portion comes from reimbursements for work performed for test customers. Most of these customers come from within the Department of War, but some comes from private industry customers that pay all costs associated with their respective testing. YPG is a Major Range Test and Facility Base, and The National Defense Authorization Act of 2003 made facilities with this designation available to other users who have a valid need for them.

The process to take advantage of this opportunity, however, was cumbersome until on August 7 Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll announced the Army Permissive Test Range Expansion Initiative. Spearheaded by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), the initiative prioritizes commercial access to specialized environments ideal for testing unmanned aerial systems (UAS), counter-UAS technologies, long-range fires and low-cost interceptors at several facilities, including West Cibola Range, a newly opened component of YPG within the proving ground's existing boundaries.

“Private industry will have the opportunity to come directly to us instead of needing to come through program executives or having some type of sponsor from the Department of War,” said Col. Charles Seaberry, YPG Commander. “The thing they’re lacking right now is having real world validation behind technology they say is at a particular maturation level. Being able to get out to our ranges directly is a strategic win.”

Private industry customers now can utilize a concierge website, http://www.testrange.army.mil, with a stated goal of facilitating testing within 30 days of a request. Though submitting a request does not guarantee a desired location or timeline, the Army concierge will work closely with the requesting company to find the most suitable available timeframe and location to meet their testing needs.

“We’ve had the ability to put contracts in place for private industry to use our ranges to test and bring up their technology level readiness, but it’s been difficult to advertise that because it was a difficult process,” said Omar Silva, YPG Chief of Staff. “With the Secretary of the Army’s help, we’re now able to help private industry go faster. The effort by ATEC to stand up the concierge website where they can see in real time what range space is available is a huge enabler.”

Since the establishment of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in August 2025, U.S. Army Yuma Test Center has been designated as the primary, dedicated interagency C-sUAS test and training range. This designation and YPG’s extensive institutional knowledge in the C-sUAS field provide opportunities to private industry customers.

“We’ve been working this mission since the Army Rapid-Equipping Force came here for Desert Chance in 2015 where we needed to see what industry had to offer to counter drones,” said Ross Gwynn, YPG Technical Director. “We have different instrumentation and test methodologies that we have developed in-house along with analytical processes to show how these systems are performing.”

While the Federal Aviation Administration is unlikely to ever allow C-sUAS testing in the unrestricted national airspace, YPG’s 2,000 square miles of restricted airspace is above miles of remote land far from any populated area. There are other benefits to private industry customers conducting aviation testing as well. YPG has a wealth of infrastructure meant for other sectors of YPG’s broad test mission that can be leveraged to support UAS evaluations. YPG is home to things like technical and tactical targets, as well as generator and combined maintenance shops, all of which are useful for UAS testing. YPG’s spectrum management office also ensures they have the radio frequencies necessary for this specialized testing.

YPG officials add that private industry testing is not restricted to the new West Cibola Range.

“If West Cibola is not available but they have a requirement, we’ll see where else we can fit them on the range,” said Silva. “At the end of the day, the contract that we have with private industry customers will be to support anything that can be done within the boundaries of YPG.”

Those boundaries include natural environment test centers at YPG’s Arctic Regions Test Center (ARTC) at Fort Greely, Alaska and Tropic Regions Test Center (TRTC), which utilizes leased land in Central and South America. YPG subordinate test centers have done testing for private industry customers and reap the benefits in ways both similar and unique. For example, since its construction in 2004, multiple private industry customers have used the Arctic Regions Test Center (ARTC) Mobility Test Complex for their testing.

Hosting commercial testing means the test center’s mobile snow-making machines and other specialized track grooming equipment not found elsewhere in the Department of War keeps moving, which saves maintenance costs in the long run. Further, continuous use means the skill the test center’s equipment operators have gained operating the esoteric machines doesn’t degrade: for instance, in unskilled hands a mobile track dryer could ruin the track’s asphalt while melting snow and ice.

“When we have low military workload, being able to do commercial testing allows us to maintain equipment capabilities and the expertise needed for doing those things,” said Jeff Lipscomb, ARTC Technical Director. “To me, the biggest benefit of the commercial automotive workload is that it keeps us on the cutting edge of automotive testing.”

With tropical regions comprising nearly 40% of the world’s land surface and serving as home to more than half the world’s population, TRTC also provides an opportunity for private industry to test in the most challenging jungle environments in the world.

“A lot of times when you look at the electromagnetic spectrum being degraded you think of mountains, but not triple canopy jungle, which TRTC has a lot of,” said Seaberry. “It’s underutilized and something we definitely have to think about for future operational needs. Testing now gives private industry the opportunity to prove their technology in that environment before we have an urgent need for the capability.”

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