A 578-foot hydraulic tube can now do something that used to require a fighter jet, a pilot, and thousands of dollars in flight hours: test whether a military flare actually works. Camp Atterbury and Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane cut the ribbon Wednesday on the first sled track of its kind in the United States, a $4 million system built to launch flares and other countermeasure devices at speeds up to Mach 1 to mimic how they deploy from real aircraft.
The unveiling, reported by The Republic News, brought U.S. Rep. Erin Houchin to Camp Atterbury to praise officials from both installations for pulling off a project that took about three years to plan and nearly a year to design and build. The track itself was constructed by Yellowstone Machinery LLC and modeled after a shorter version already operating in the United Kingdom. Once fully staged, a test takes only about 20 minutes to prepare, and the whole thing runs off a computer system that fires with a single mouse click.
Why Camp Atterbury Was the Pick
Camp Atterbury was chosen as the site for the new track largely because of its available space and restricted airspace, according to the same report. The base near Edinburgh, Indiana spans more than 34,000 acres, including 26,000 acres of maneuver training space and a 6,000-acre impact area, per the Indiana National Guard. Officials described the Camp Atterbury-Muscatuck complex as offering controlled airspace, secure range boundaries, and a central location — the kind of footprint few other sites in the region can match.
Brig. Gen. Cathy Eaken said the site represents “a culture of innovation” supporting national defense, the same source reports. The base's history stretches back to 1942, when it was established across more than 40,000 original acres and, according to IndianaMilitary.org, once housed up to 44,000 troops and operated the 2,700-bed Wakeman General Hospital during World War II. More recently, the base has hosted joint Department of Defense technology exercises involving more than 30 organizations and live-fire trials of mobile counter-drone laser systems, as Hoodline reported in its piece on the counter-drone laser demonstrations held there in mid-2026.
How the Track Actually Works
Military aircraft deploy flares to redirect heat-seeking missiles away from their engines, and the new sled track is designed to test whether those flares and other countermeasure devices fire correctly before they ever leave the ground. A test counts as successful the moment the flare or countermeasure device fires. Officials evaluate the mechanical performance of individual units during each run, and track monitors let them review every part of a test as it happens, with video saved onto hard drives and data transported to NSWC Crane for analysis.
Angie Lewis said the sled track should improve the quality and effectiveness of countermeasure and flare systems for Air Force and Navy aircraft, and that it will enable faster iteration and more frequent experimentation. NSWC Crane officials plan to use the track for continued experimentation aimed at improving flares and countermeasure devices going forward. That work fits squarely within Crane's broader mandate: the facility holds total life-cycle management responsibility for infrared countermeasures, countermeasure systems, and pyrotechnics across the entire Navy, having developed every expendable infrared countermeasure in the active naval inventory, according to the Naval Sea Systems Command. Crane also develops and qualifies all flares used by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
Cutting the Need for Pilots and Aircraft
Nancy Maloy noted that actual aircraft and flight hours are currently required for first article and lot acceptance testing of flares, which is precisely the bottleneck the sled track is meant to shrink. By eliminating the need for pilots and military aircraft during many of those tests, the system reduces testing turnaround time substantially. Officials expect the track to save about $1.7 million per year in flight testing costs, along with additional savings in time and flight hours.
Marty Terry, who worked on the project, said it required several meetings a week to bring together, and confirmed the track was launched for the first time about a week before Wednesday's ribbon cutting. Standard airborne infrared decoy flares qualified by NSWC Crane rely on Magnesium/Teflon/Viton energetic formulations, with commercial production supported by defense industrial partners including Chemring Countermeasures, according to the OSD Manufacturing Science and Technology Program. Officials and guests viewed a live demonstration of the sled track after the ribbon cutting.
Part of a Bigger Push in Southern Indiana
The sled track's debut lands amid a broader expansion at NSWC Crane, which employs between 6,800 and 7,000 personnel and ranks among the largest regional employers in Southern Indiana, contributing millions of dollars daily to the state's economy, as Hoodline detailed in its report on Crane's incoming one-star leadership. The Department of Defense plans to assign a one-star flag officer to Crane by October 1, 2026, expanding its authority to oversee hypersonics integration and sea-launched cruise missile programs. Rep. Erin Houchin, who represents Indiana's 9th Congressional District covering NSWC Crane, has co-hosted annual defense receptions in Washington to advocate for regional military funding and infrastructure upgrades.
Camp Atterbury's growing role as a Department of Defense testing hub has not been without controversy closer to home. In mid-2025, federal plans to potentially designate the base as an ICE detainment processing center sparked public demonstrations in nearby Greenwood, a chapter of the base's recent history that Hoodline covered in its report on the Greenwood community protests. It remains unclear exactly when industry contractors will begin scheduling their own testing on the new track or whether commercial defense firms will set up secondary operations nearby to take advantage of it, questions that will likely shape how quickly the facility's projected savings materialize.
