Montana National Guard hosts experimentation event to accelerate battlefield ready technologies

LIMESTONE HILLS TRAINING AREA, Mont. - The Montana National Guard is hosting a key experimentation event this week with partners in a joint innovation push to accelerate battlefield ready technologies.

Before soaring the skies, you need to know how to use your wings to fly, or in this instance for these soldiers from the Montana Army National Guard, learn how to control these first person view style unmanned aerial vehicles before using a real UAV.

And that’s the whole point of this training is to soak in and learn how to use battlefield ready technology to address urgent operational priorities emerging from today’s battlefield.

According to the Montana National Guard, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East, recent conflicts have underscored the rapid proliferation of low cost drones, persistent surveillance, and contested logistics environments. These conditions are reshaping how forces detect, maneuver, and sustain operations, placing a premium on speed, adaptability, and technological edge.

This month’s event at limestone hills focuses on critical capability areas aligned to modern conflict like:

• Tactical small unmanned aircraft system operations
• Counter small unmanned aircraft system operations
• Signals signature management in contested environments
• Mobile manufacturing and repair of unmanned systems
• Contested logistics and sustainment under threat

Some soldiers from the Montana Army National Guard appreciate the opportunity to get exposure into the new integrated software that’s being put out for new technologies.

“What we’ll do is we’re bringing digital stuff in, we’re bringing all of these fpv drones. And what we’ll do is we’re learning how to use them in all the terrain and how they function around the state and how we’re going to apply them moving forward,” said Jay Utter, Montana Army National Guard sergeant first class.

Utter said these drones could be applied and used here in Montana for local fire and flood relief and all the way out to combat and large scale operations at the national level.

Dirt Days partnered with the Montana National Guard to help bring the driving, innovation and realistic training to this event series.

“Combining technologies, getting those technologies into the hands of soldiers in combat relevant scenarios. They'll have hands-on with an array of small UAS. They'll learn mobile manufacturing at a point of need,” said Brian Gazaway, Dirt Days event series lead planner.

For the Montana National Guard, participation in this event reflects a continued commitment to readiness and relevance in an evolving threat environment.