Message posted by Beltway_Bandit on July 09, 2009 at 19:38:54 PST:

I'm intrigued by the apparent 'Start/Finish' line near the eastern 'parking lot,' which wouldn't make much sense if the sole purpose of this track is GMTI by UAVs/UCAVs. A Start/Finish line would be most useful for operating two or more vehicles on the track at the same time, to gauge relative distance from each other for their drivers and/or observers.

Two WAGs (wild-donkey guesses):

1. A variation on the DARPA Desert/Urban/Grand Challenge theory -- autonomous follow-vehicles for convoys. Computer-controlled vehicles play follow-the-leader with a single, hardened, lead vehicle driven by humans. IIRC, this was seen as an in-between step in moving towards totally autonomous convoys. I would think, though, given the relatively white-world nature of the Grand Challenge, that this would be a silly exercise for building a test track inside 'the Box.'

2. Testing vehicle-based anti-VBIED technologies/techniques -- perhaps they're testing less-lethal/non-lethal methods and mechanisms to defeat/disable Vehicle-Based Improvised Explosive Devices (suicide car bombs) from within another (leading/trailing) vehicle. Again, this would prove useful in the context of MOUT and Phase IV operations, but doesn't really seem to need the secrecy of Groom, unless they're utilizing something really exotic. (Would Directed Energy Weapons even be considered exotic in this day and age?)

PS -- I do actually drive a race car (in a couple of amateur series). When I lived in D.C., I used to race/practice/instruct every so often at the same track that Diplomatic Security Service uses to train Foreign Service Officers who are sent to hazardous postings in Escape/Evasion techniques.

In Reply to: Re: Bothered by (race track) urban test track posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on July 09, 2009 at 9:26:12 PST:

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