Best Warrior

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BALTIMORE – Fourteen competitors from throughout the Army National Guard are slated to battle it out in a physically and mentally challenging five-day competition to determine the Army Guard’s Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the year July 14-18 in locations throughout Maryland.

Hosted by the Maryland Army National Guard the 2025 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition tests competitors on a variety of tactical and technical tasks including weapons proficiency, land navigation, emergency medical tasks, and combat casualty care. These tasks are completed over a grueling set of courses throughout the state that includes multiple timed ruck marches and the Army Combat Fitness Test.

Winners in the competition – one Soldier and one NCO – are named the Army Guard’s Soldier and NCO of the Year and will compete in the Department of the Army Best Squad Competition this fall. Runners-up in the Best Warrior Competition fill out the Army Guard squad competing in the Best Squad Competition based on their finish in Best Warrior.

Competitors in this year’s Army Guard Best Warrior Competition include:

Soldier Category
Spc. Adam Andrews - Rhode Island
Spc. Robert Ruiz-Rhoades – Pennsylvania
Spc. Jaden Hughes - Alabama
Spc. Logan Rutledge – Indiana
Spc. Alexander Thomson – Nebraska
Spc. Canyon Blassingame - Montana
Sgt. Michael Fouts – Arizona

NCO Category
Sgt. Kristopher Piwowarczyk - New Jersey
Staff Sgt. Miles Crawford – Maryland
Staff Sgt. Nicolas White – Georgia
Staff Sgt. Brandon Byrne - Wisconsin
Sgt. Luke Entz – Nebraska
Sgt. Matthew Lee – Montana
Sgt. Luke Cloward - Utah

Video Gallery

Video by Keith C Lewis

X-29 | AFRL Discovery to Delivery

Air Force Research Laboratory

Jan. 1, 2026 | 1:25

There is an error in the subtitle on video Laboratory’s vs. laboratories. Fly-by-wire should have hyphens (multiple times). :059 X-29’s needs possessive

The X-29 research vehicle illustrates two foundational technology areas that enable autonomous collaborative platforms
One of those key technologies is fly-by-wire. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s predecessor labs worked on fly-by0wire technologies in the 1960s and 70s leading the first production combat aircraft to use fly-by-wire, the F-16.

Fly-by-wire works by taking the control inputs from the pilot, sending them to a computer, which makes the appropriate adjustments and then sends signals to actuate the control surfaces. This approach helps allow very unstable aircraft like the X-29 to be able to fly.

The second technology is composite structures. The X-29’s forward swept wings generated powerful torsional, or twisting, forces, and so it needed a very strong but light structure. This problem was solved through the use of composite materials.

From these early beginnings, the labs have continued to advance fly-by-wire and composite structure technologies, and which today’s autonomous collaborative platforms now employ.

Air Force Historian, Jeff Duford, joins the AFRL “Discovery to Delivery” video series to uncover the historic scope and role of AFRL’s critical research, which delivers today’s warfighting capabilities