The ARDEC Homeland Defense Technology Center (HDTC) administered by ARDEC’s Business Interface Office was created to meet the needs of our country in Homeland Defense, Homeland Security and the Global War on Terror (GWOT).
This multiple facet center is the home of the Homeland Defense Technology Test Bed commonly known as the “3500 Area”. This is an instrumented multi-acre testing and training site that exploits the engineering expertise resident at ARDEC to further equip our fighters in the war on terrorism and to leverage that same technology for civilian needs of Homeland Security.
In addition, this area couples Homeland Defense and Security technology development with comprehensive and integrated training scenarios in a realistic environment. The training scenarios are hands-on, dynamic, and conducted under stressful conditions (train like you fight, fight like you train). The HDTC provides this environment for the joint training of Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard Soldiers as well as local, state and federal personnel. This relationship between technology development and training provides immediate end-users feedback to the developers at Picatinny thus shortening development cycles.
The unique capabilities of this area have attracted other than traditional DoD customers. For example the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) has trained their personnel on Dangerous Mail Inspections to include instruction on explosives and explosive devices that they may be involved in the performance of their job.
Because the flow of information is also critical for both our military and civilian counterparts during wars and times of crisis, the facility can also be used in conjunction with the new Emergency Operations Center.
Currently the competencies in the HDTC are:
- Defeat of Lethal Mechanisms
- Sensors and Sensor Integration
- Explosive Detection
- Logistics
- Americas Army Trainer
- Non-Lethal / Target Behavioral Response Laboratory (TBRL)
- Biometrics
- Emergency Operations Center (Knowledge Management)
- Americas Army Trainer
- 3500 Area (Technology Testbed)
- Two 85 foot NJ Transit Train on 300’ of Track
- Underground Tunnels (460 ft of 6’& 4’ dia tunnel)
- NJ Transit Buses
- Adjacent Heliport
- Rubble Pile
- Classrooms
- Tactical Assault Building
- Helipad
- Simulation Training Center, second training classroom, and the 3500 area/EOC link
Current initiatives:
- Integration of systems and systems engineering for perimeter defense applications (sense and respond)
- Rapid response with lethal and non-lethal force with robots
- Non-Lethal Munitions and Human Behavioral Response
- ARDEC Biometric Research, Test & Evaluation Laboratory - R&D to generate application specific performance indicators regarding system accuracy and reliability of Biometric Devices. Results of which will be used to incorporate biometric devices into weapon systems, to restrict physical, logical and communication access to the system to only authorized users. Examples are the Biometric Facility and Inventory Control System (BFICS) and Outdoor Biometric Surveillance (OBS)
- Local First Responder Training
- National Guard Training
