AI Acceleration Strategy: Scarlet Dragon Links Military, Industry to Test Artificial Intelligence for Warfighters

On a cold, December day deep in a training area at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, soldiers, airmen, Marines and civilian industry partners came together to test the latest drone and counter unmanned aircraft systems technology, while rapidly sharing targeting data through the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Maven Smart System.

Scarlet Dragon is the XVIII Airborne Corps’ premier innovation exercise, where new ideas and technologies are tested to solve current issues on the battlefield.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Nigeria Mozell, an administrative specialist assigned to the Headquarters and Service Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, participates in a virtual reality training demonstration at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Jan. 8, 2026. The demonstration provided Marines the opportunity to engage in realistic, immersive virtual training scenarios designed to replicate operational environments, while exploring how virtual reality technology could be integrated to enhance future Marine Corps training programs.

“We’re focused on bringing new technologies and approaches to solve operational capability gaps and requirements that we identify from operational plans around the globe,” said Rob Braun, XVIII Airborne Corps chief technical officer. 

The Scarlet Dragon exercise series started in 2020 as a tabletop exercise in the basement of the XVIII Airborne Corps’ headquarters and has evolved into a triannual innovation event where joint services, government agencies and industry partners come together to test and integrate the latest technology for the modern warfighter. 

During this iteration, known as Scarlet Dragon 26-1, the XVIII Airborne Corps tested several initiatives. The 18th Field Artillery Brigade trained with the Air Force to rapidly load and deploy an M142 high mobility artillery rocket system from a C-17 Globemaster III, all while simultaneously receiving targeting data through NGA’s Maven Smart System. The streamlined data sharing allows the HIMARS unit to rapidly deploy anywhere in the world and quickly set up for offensive or defensive engagements. 

“We’re doing cold-load training with a C-130, putting the HIMARS on the aircraft, driving it off, executing a rapid-fire mission and getting back on quickly,” said Army 2nd Lt. Ryan Mitchell, 18th Field Artillery Brigade, HIMARS platoon leader. “Through Scarlet Dragon, we are doing advanced targeting with data received through Maven, rapidly getting that information to the launcher so we can deploy and shoot faster.”

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Another initiative included real time data sharing and tracking between AH-64 Apache helicopters from the 82nd Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade, drones and small UAS with the XVIII Airborne Corps Air and Missile Defense team, Sentinel radars from the 82nd Airborne Division, and newly fielded SGT STOUT short range air defense systems from the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.

The Sentinel radars and SGT STOUTs tracked Apaches and drones, pushing data to the corps headquarters to validate faster early warning systems for troops on the ground. Apache pilots tested their ability to identify and track small drones, while the SGT STOUT teams validated their tracking and targeting capabilities. 

The integration of the SGT STOUT into the maneuver force is a critical step in providing protection against short-range air threats.  

“What I like about Scarlet Dragon is how I push, not just the soldiers, but also the equipment that we have to our limits and to see what we are capable of and how we can improve our system capabilities,” said Army Spc. Daniel Rosas, XVIII Airborne Corps Air Defense Battle Management System operator. “With the way the world is currently moving, especially when it comes to UAS or drones, it is a big threat, and it helps for us to push forward on what we can adapt when it comes to gauging and tracking these threats.” 

Scarlet Dragon gives service members and industry partners the opportunity to test new ideas and innovations in an open and minimum-risk environment.   

“That’s what I really like about Scarlet Dragon,” said Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Sean Benson, XVIII Airborne Corps senior geo-intelligence imagery technician. “It’s not an exercise with defined timelines or deliverables. It’s whatever we want to try to get to the outcome we need. If you have an idea and it sticks when you throw it on the wall, we’ll give it a shot.”

The Future of Scarlet Dragon 

With every iteration of Scarlet Dragon, the integration process is refined and the technology improves. In the future, the Scarlet Dragon exercise series will be tied in with Fort Bragg and XVIII Airborne Corps’ new Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin Joint Innovation Outpost, which will officially open Jan. 23, 2026.

“During Scarlet Dragon 26-1, the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg held a soft opening for our new Joint Innovation Outpost, or JIOP,” said Army Lt. Gen. Greg Anderson, commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps. “With the JIOP and our Scarlet Dragon series of exercises, we will be able to develop and test soldier-driven, rapid innovation and technical transformation while providing the Army a model to revolutionize the acquisition process. It is making us more lethal at the tactical and operational levels of war.” 

The JIOP will allow soldiers to bring innovative solutions to the facility to work with civilian industry and academic partners to refine and produce new technology that can then be tested in Scarlet Dragon exercises and eventually shared across the joint force. 

In 2026, Scarlet Dragon will shift to the Indo-Pacific theater and U.S. Army Japan for their annual combined exercise with the Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces, Yama Sakura. 

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War Department Launches AI Acceleration Strategy to Secure American Military AI Dominance

Jan. 12, 2026

The Department of War today launches a transformative Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy that will extend our lead in military AI deployment and establish the United States as the world’s undisputed AI-enabled fighting force. Mandated by President Trump, this acceleration strategy will unleash experimentation, eliminate legacy bureaucratic blockers, and integrate the bleeding edge of frontier AI capabilities across every mission area to usher in an unprecedented era of American military AI dominance.

“We will unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus our investments and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI,” said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. “We will become an ‘AI-first’ warfighting force across all domains.”

The Department is taking a wartime approach to delivering capabilities, with an emphasis on three tenets: warfighting, intelligence and enterprise operations. This approach will strengthen battlefield decision-making, rapidly convert intelligence data and modernize daily workflows, all in direct support of more than three million DoW personnel.

The catalyst for this acceleration will be seven Pace-Setting Projects (PSPs), each with a single accountable leader and aggressive timelines. These PSPs will establish a new AI execution standard for the entire Department:

Warfighting

• Swarm Forge: Competitive mechanism to iteratively discover, test, and scale novel ways of fighting with and against AI-enabled capabilities – combining America’s elite warfighting units with elite technology innovators.
• Agent Network: Unleashing AI agent development and experimentation for AI-enabled battle management and decision support, from campaign planning to kill chain execution.
• Ender’s Foundry: Accelerating AI-enabled simulation capabilities – and sim-dev and sim-ops feedback loops – to ensure we stay ahead of AI-enabled adversaries.

Intelligence

• Open Arsenal: Accelerating the TechINT-to-capability development pipeline, turning intel into weapons in hours, not years.
• Project Grant: Enabling transformation of deterrence from static postures and speculation to dynamic pressure with interpretable results.

Enterprise

• GenAI.mil: Providing Department-wide access to frontier generative AI models, like Google’s Gemini and xAI’s Grok, for all DoW personnel at Information Level (IL-5) and above classification levels. 
• Enterprise Agents: Building the playbook for rapid and secure AI agent development and deployment to transform enterprise workflows.

This AI Acceleration Strategy is driving a major expansion of AI compute infrastructure through targeted investments and will unlock access to the data that gives the War Department an asymmetric edge. The Department will bring in top American AI talent through initiatives like the Office of Personnel Management’s “Tech Force” initiative and will empower small, accountable teams to attack complex AI integration opportunities. The War Department will eradicate woke DEI from our AI capabilities and ensure our military has objective, mission‑first systems that will guarantee decision superiority and warfighting advantage in this AI era.

“Speed defines victory in the AI era, and the War Department will match the velocity of America’s AI industry,” said Emil Michael, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering. “We’re pulling in the best talent, the most cutting‑edge technology, and embedding the top frontier AI models into the workforce — all at a rapid wartime pace.” 

Grounded in the core tenets of warfighting, intelligence and enterprise operations – and following President Trump’s direction – the War Department will accelerate America’s Military AI Dominance by becoming an AI-first warfighting force across all domains.