WASHINGTON -The Department of War will hold a Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) event in North Dakota from Aug. 15-31 at Camp Grafton, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-ND, announced.

The T-REX event follows Hoeven’s efforts to persuade the Department of War to leverage North Dakota’s technology ecosystem to rapidly test and evaluate counter unmanned aircraft systems (cUAS) technology.

“We made the case to top Pentagon leaders that North Dakota is the ideal place to test and evaluate counter-UAS technology, thanks to our expertise and available range space,” Hoeven said. “As this partnership between DoW leaders and the North Dakota Guard develops, we expect additional T-REX events to be held on a regular basis.”

T-REX is a Department of War initiative designed to accelerate the development, testing and fielding of emerging technologies by providing a structured framework for experimentation. Through the T-REX process, the department works with industry partners to evaluate and refine capabilities in realistic operational environments. At the Camp Grafton T-REX event, companies with promising cUAS technology will have the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities and allow the Department to determine if it should procure their systems, according to Hoeven.

The North Dakota National Guard will make range space available at Camp Grafton to host the T-REX event as well as provide logistics and communications support.

Hoeven, a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated in a letter in August 2025 that the North Dakota National Guard and Camp Grafton could play a key role in supporting the department’s efforts to rapidly develop and deploy cUAS technology. That letter led to a November meeting between Hoeven and officials from the Department of War’s Research and Engineering section to discuss ways to best utilize the state’s capabilities. Hoeven connected these officials to the North Dakota National Guard to discuss T-REX.