From a small working group in the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters’ windowless basement at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 2020, to an exercise spanning all U.S. military services and civilian and international partners around the globe, Scarlet Dragon’s concept of integrating artificial intelligence on a shared data platform is now a viable reality.

As the Department of War’s premier training series for integrating AI across multiple services and partners, the Scarlet Dragon series of exercises develops and improves the rapid response capabilities of the XVIII Airborne Corps through rigorous field testing and implementation of advanced technology.

“Scarlet Dragon gives us a forum to communicate with industry, partners, other Army and joint organizations to solve problems and provide the force with viable options on the battlefield using modern technological solutions,” said Lt. Gen. Greg Anderson, XVIII Airborne Corps commanding general.

“Scarlet Dragon is our innovation exercise,” said Rob Braun, the XVIII Airborne Corps’ chief technology officer. “We’re focused on bringing in new technologies and new approaches to solve operational capability gaps and requirements that we derive from different operational plans around the globe.”

Real-Time Data Sharing

The Scarlet Dragon exercise series distinguishes itself by enabling all participants, regardless of service or background, to interact with real-time data on a common digital platform, dramatically improving communication and data sharing.

“When we look at the future fight, it’s about how we move data,” said Maj. Tyler Phillips, XVIII Airborne Corps Scarlet Dragon planner and fire support officer.

“If we go anywhere in the world, we have to be able to talk to our allies and partners, receive intel, share [common operating picture] data and process it,” Phillips said.

“During the exercise, we essentially fuse new technologies, to include AI, together with joint partners,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dupree Jennings, the corps’ air and missile defense systems integrator, joint interface control officer. “Then, we work together to create and execute a trainable mission.”

The most recent iteration of Scarlet Dragon (25-3), the third in 2025, ran for two weeks in August, with participation from multiple services and interagency partners. The objective was to enhance interoperability on a common operating platform, and this iteration specifically incorporated

real-time tracking and engagement of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). “Our mission here this week is to fly and detect UAS, then send that feed to NGA Maven Smart System or another IL6 pathway,” said 1st Lt.  Steve Hansmann of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

Improved Capabilities

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Maven Smart System is an AI tool designed to process imagery and full-motion video from drones by combining sensors, AI and machine learning. An IL6, or Impact Level 6, pathway is reserved for storage and processing of information classified up to the secret level, according to Microsoft.

“Doing that enables us to improve our detection capabilities with the small UAS and then we can push that data link architecture in the network all the way down to the end user,” Hansmann said. “We’re working on sharing live data to our Marine Stinger teams so that they can have early warning or engagement in the field, or we are pushing the data to a single screen in the [tactical operations center, or TOC] that the command can make a decision on for action.”

While soldiers and Marines tracked and engaged UASs in the field using Stinger missiles or AH-64 Apache helicopters, Marines in the TOC leveraged the Maven Smart System and AI to validate and prioritize targets. “Myself and the other Marines involved are part of the

dynamic targeting cell where we’re effectively using NGA’s Maven Smart System and the Maven AI to rapidly identify targets of interest that align with the [high-priority target list] for the exercise. We’re nominating those targets, validating them, and pushing them to the fire cell,” said Marine Sgt. Wesley Peters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. This process facilitates quick, real-time data sharing among all exercise participants.

Scarlet Dragon 25-3 also focused on improving interoperability while addressing operational problems to better align with global combatant commands’ areas of responsibility.

“When we’re looking at operational problems unique to a specific region, then we can be more prepared to respond to a threat in that region,” said Braun, the corps’ CTO. “When we go into that theater, we already know when we hit the ground, we can share data. And data is what drives operations right now. Data drives

maneuver. We need to understand how the data moves, what data we need access to, what data we generate, how we share that data with our partners, how we receive their data and integrate that into a common operating picture.”

Reducing Barriers

The integration of NGA’s Maven Smart System and the Scarlet Dragon exercise series reduces language barriers and stove-piped operations between services and industry, streamlining communications and data sharing.

“It’s sometimes difficult to work with our joint entities, especially since we don’t talk on the same wavelength,” said Master Sgt. John Washington with the XVIII Airborne Corps. “But with our technical guys and our [subject-matter experts] out here, we’ve been working through problems and solving those issues.”

He added, “Scarlet Dragon helps us to communicate and work better together. Using all our assets that we own as a corps and tying in our partners to work through those issues, especially when it comes to LSCO [large-scale combat operations]. We can test it now, which is preferable to before it’s too late on the battlefield.”

Civilian industry partner Richard Guardino, a Palantir deployment strategist, agrees. “As the Maven vendor, we have been very focused on bringing as many of those data sources in so that they’re all available in one spot, which has manifested for the force getting to do those tests and seeing just how valuable it is for them,” he said. “If they want to go forward with data sharing and communication with NGA MSS, they can now use it operationally.”

This mutually beneficial relationship allows the XVIII Airborne Corps to articulate the Army’s needs to the private sector, stimulating business and encouraging innovation from industry partners.

“The civilian partners are great,” Hansmann said. “They’re all out here sharing and contributing. A lot of them are ex-military and are very helpful figuring out how to pull everybody onto that single pane of glass.”

“This is a playground for industry, using the latest tech that is in our military, and then the greatest minds that are in our military and industry come together collectively,” said Jennings, the corps’ joint interface control officer.

As diverse expertise converges, the Scarlet Dragon exercise series continues to improve. “Scarlet Dragon never stops evolving, and that’s the beauty of it,” the exercise’s lead planner, Phillips, said. “As the new ways and technologies evolve, we become faster and more effective.”

Scarlet Dragon wasn’t always the Army’s premier exercise in data sharing and AI. Retired Col. Joe O’Callaghan, co-creator of the Scarlet Dragon concept, is a former field artillery officer and XVIII Airborne Corps chief of fires. He is now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s director of the AI Mission.

Before becoming NGA Maven, Project Maven was executed under the Office of the Undersecretary of War for Intelligence and Security’s Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team and was established in April 2017, O’Callaghan said. The office teamed with the Army and XVIII Airborne Corps to advance algorithm-based technology initiatives to develop new methods for bringing AI and machine learning into programs of record, joint functions and Pentagon mission areas.

Finding Efficiencies

In 2022, Project Maven transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency as a program of record and continues to maintain its close ties to XVIII Airborne Corps in experimentation, he said.

As NGA Maven grew and evolved, so did Scarlet Dragon. “Scarlet Dragon started as a very fire-specific exercise to find out how we can find efficiencies in the fires process within the Army. Then it evolved quickly to encompass other joint forces,” Braun said. “We’ve worked with European allies. We’ve worked with other services. We’ve brought in more industry engagement.”

“The first Scarlet Dragon was just a small team operating out of the war room, the basement of the G-34 fires building,” said Staff Sgt. Slobodan Konjovic, XVIII Airborne Corps’ air and missile defense operations sergeant. “We initially went from a theory on paper to just talking to a few aircraft via the system. At the time, that was huge for us. In the few years since then, the exercise series has grown immensely.”

Since its inception, Scarlet Dragon has grown to include the Army National Guard, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, interagency task forces such as Joint Interagency Task Force South, and NATO allies. In 2026, Scarlet Dragon will expand and integrate for the first time into the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Japan Self-Defense Forces through the annual U.S.-Japanese exercise Yama Sakura.

“As America’s contingency corps, we have a requirement to deploy anywhere in the world in an 18-hour sequence,” Anderson said. He added that the corps must integrate with multiple combatant commands and Army service-component commands. “We get exposed to more capability gaps and operational requirements than other organizations, and at a much faster pace,” he said.

From a concept developed in a windowless basement to a formative series of exercises incorporating joint and interagency partners, allies and international partners, Scarlet Dragon is shaping the future battlefield as the premier Department of War exercise incorporating generative AI. “If you want to ensure that America’s contingency corps arrives in your [area of responsibility] as a partner, and you want to have guaranteed interoperability and integration with the fighting force, then you need to come to Scarlet Dragon,” CTO Braun said.

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Maj. Matthew “Matt” St. Clair is a public affairs officer for the XVIII Airborne Corps staff at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Previously, he was the acting commander of the American Forces Network-Europe. He has one combat deployment to Afghanistan and two operational deployments to Europe. He has a bachelor of arts and science degree in political science and history from Ohio University and a master’s degree in intelligence studies and operations from American Military University.

Sgt. Hermon Whaley Jr. is a public affairs NCO for the XVIII Airborne Corps staff. Previously, he was a part of the 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting from the State University of New York at Purchase College.