Research Integration Center

The George H.W. Bush Combat Development Center (BCDC) at The Texas A&M University System’s RELLIS Campus will encompass three main components with unique capabilities – the Research Integration Center (RIC), the Innovation Proving Ground (IPG), and the Ballistic, Aero-optic, and Materials (BAM) Range.

All of BCDC’s unique components and capabilities come together at the RIC, which acts as the intellectual hub for all testing and research conducted at the complex.

This three-story facility is for innovation, where researchers and other experts from industry, government, academia, and the military gather to collaborate on emerging technologies. Data is collected, stored and curated for real-time and after-action analyses with a command center to direct, observe and evaluate the testing underway anywhere in the BCDC in real time. The RIC has offices for research teams, space for U.S. military personnel, laboratories, a machine shop, high-tech makerspaces for product development and more. 

This facility is the BCDC headquarters on RELLIS campus, and houses a wall-sized display of video feeds, thermal imagery, data streams, analytics and map overlays of whatever is being tested. This visual presentation can speed test insights and help identify testing article or experimentation design changes. Specialists can manage the collection, storage, analysis and sharing of data with the military and others. Another group of experts can evaluate the cybersecurity resilience of everything being tested.

The RIC ensures that testing at the BCDC is comparable and shareable with testing at other U.S. facilities – it also allows the BCDC to participate in testing at other facilities.

The RIC is complete and fully operational as of August 2021 on RELLIS’s expansive campus.

Individuals interested in using tools in the prototype shop are required to complete safety training and the quiz found in the slideshow here.