EDINBURGH, Ind. (WISH) — At Camp Atterbury this week, the U.S. Department of Defense is testing new technologies that can be used in war.

Marcia Holmes, assistant secretary of defense for operational capabilities, said: “Technology is changing rapidly. Threats are changing rapidly, and our traditional acquisition processes often simply cannot keep up.”

Holmes emphasized that in addition to the internal teams, private companies are also presenting their new technology in a program called “Technology Readiness Experimentation” (TREX).

The Department of Defense has partnered with the Indiana National Guard to rapidly field test new technologies in an effort to keep up and adapt with changing times. Soldiers will be given the opportunity to test the prototypes in a military environment.

78 projects were presented, 12 of which were exhibited on Tuesday. One of them showed drones that can drop bombs or become bombs themselves.

Tim Dunnigan, CEO and President of Mjolnir Security, said, “As a retired Army infantry officer, it is really important to me to have products that are easy to use, intuitive to operate and easily accessible to warfighters.”

Dunnigan demonstrated drone pods used to carry explosives or other items. He showed News 8 how the pods are carried by the drones.

“This is the jettisonable version. It’s designed to be dropped from this drone.”

The larger drones are used to carry larger payloads, and the smaller drones can be used as bombs. “You see this a lot in Ukraine, where you attach a lot of explosives to a small drone and then fly it to the target.”

Other technological advances included an unmanned military airship. Military airships, or aerostats, are used for surveillance. They can monitor enemy troops or incoming missiles. It usually takes 12 people to set up and pilot an airship, but thanks to new technologies, the latest airships only require four people to set them up, and after that, with the help of artificial intelligence, they are completely unmanned.

“Once it’s set up, we can view and control it anywhere in the world,” said George Allen of Altaeros.

Allen says their airships reduce costs because fewer personnel are needed.

Glenn also described wearable technology that allows soldiers to optimize their communications in combat, ensuring secure communications. “This is a feature that soldiers can wear. They can use it to connect the various radios in the system.”

The wearable technology also tracks soldiers so teams know where they are.

Not all 78 projects will pass the military’s rigorous program, but those that do will be used by soldiers in 2025.