The U.S. Army, on Friday, Aug. 7, announced Camp Grayling in Northern Michigan is among four designated facilities in the U.S that will act as a "premier testing range" for drone development.
The initiative is a part of an effort to accelerate the delivery of critical capabilities to the "warfighter," the U.S. Army said in a news release, opening the facilities to private industry for testing drones, counter-drone technologies, long-range fires and low-cost interceptors.
The other ranges chosen for the effort include: Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, West Cibola Range in Arizona, Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Mississippi and the Africa Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center Multidomain Training Area in Morocco.
“A company with
a good idea shouldn’t need a team of lawyers and a program of record just to prove their equipment works,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said. “So we fixed that. One front door — testrange.army.mil — a real person to walk you in, and on the other side, everything the modern battlefield demands: contested airspace, degraded signals and the space to test at real scale.”
The National All-Domain Warfighting Center, which includes Camp Grayling, was chosen earlier this year by the federal government for drone testing after months of requests from state officials.
The initiative, spearheaded by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), gives industry access to specialized environments for testing drones, counter-drone technologies, long-range fires and low-cost interceptors.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Driscoll in a Friday news release, applauded the announcement.
“With our talented workers, strong manufacturing ecosystem, and world-class military bases, Michigan is the best place in the world to innovate and build the future of drones,” a news release from her office reads. “I’m proud that Camp Grayling was selected for this initiative and excited to see how it will grow our economy, create good-paying jobs, and builds on Michigan’s legacy of defense leadership.”
The NADWC is the country's largest joint training range east of the Mississippi River and hosts the annual Northern Strike Exercise, a National Guard Bureau program.
NADWC has nearly 148,000 acres of training space at the Camp Grayling Maneuver Training Center and 17,000 square miles of special-use military airspace at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center. It provides a drone testing ground for both the Department of War, formerly known as the Department of Defense, and the private sector.
In addition to standard testing, the Army will host an electromagnetic unreliability test event for private industry at Camp Grayling during the week of Sept. 13, 2026. This environment will mimic the contested electronic warfare conditions currently seen on the battlefield in Ukraine, offering industry a rare opportunity to harden their drone and counter-drone systems, the Army said.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Army seeks drone tech advances. How Michigan plays a key role
