Pentagon Gears Up to Put Heidi Shyu’s Innovative Military Projects into Action

Heidi Shyu’s experimental military project named Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) addresses gaps within military capability.

Explore the testing of prototypes and a $687 million budget request in Heidi Shyu’s RDER project. (PHOTO: Breaking Defense)

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Heidi Shyu’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve, Prototypes Underway

A group of military leaders will come together this fall to decide which of the Pentagon’s new rapid experimentation projects will be used in the field. According to Defense News, this move is guided by Heidi Shyu, the U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. The Heidi Shyu team has been working on the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) for two years. This initiative focuses on developing prototypes to address important needs across different military branches.

Though the specific prototypes being tested are not publicly disclosed, the first set of projects aims to address long-range firepower needs in the Indo-Pacific region. The prototypes made by Heidi Shyu and her team was tested in Indiana’s Camp Atterbury and during the U.S. INDOPACOM’s Northern Edge exercise.

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$687M Fiscal 2024 Budget for Heidi Shyu’s Program RDER

The most successful prototypes will be presented to a group of influential military leaders, known as the deputy’s management action group (DMAG). They will make decisions about which systems to advance and allocate funding for, as reported.

This initiative by Heidi Shyu is a joint effort for the Army and Air Force. The upcoming meeting will determine which branch takes the lead on this project and how many systems will be procured based on the available funds. The Pentagon has shown strong financial support, requesting $687 million for RDER in the fiscal 2024 budget, almost doubling the previous year’s allocation. The program’s approach of testing prototypes in realistic settings, involving military users’ input, is proving successful in bridging critical capability gaps and could shape the future of military technology.

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