Adranos, Inc., a Purdue University startup in West Lafayette, Ind., is the winner of the Army’s inaugural xTechSearch competition.

The xTechSearch announcement marked the end of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition. Retired Gen. Carter Ham, AUSA president and CEO, said the sixth annual event in Huntsville, Ala., represented “a tremendous opportunity for the many industries and services that support the Army to have a conversation with the Army to better understand its requirements and to better lay out their capabilities so that the Army can make good decisions moving into the future” while providing a forum for professional development discussions.

“We will be back in March 2020,” he said. The exact dates for the 2020 Global Force event have not been determined.

Aranos received a $200,000 check to continue work on ALITEC, a cost-effective solid rocket propellant that increases the range of ballistic missiles against other propellant-based projectiles by 40 percent.

Also named were 12 finalists for xTechSearch 2.0.

The Expeditionary Technology Search, shortened to xTechSearch, calls on companies to demonstrate technologies that can help the Army meet its modernization challenges. The goal is to seek nontraditional innovators who can work with the Army, including through cooperative research opportunities with Army scientists, as it modernizes the force.

From robotics and night-vision to radar, machine guns and duct tape, innovation has driven the very nature of how the Army fights, said Jeffrey White, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.

“Innovation reforms, both large and small, have improved the lives of our soldiers,” he said. “And continued innovation is absolutely critical for force modernization.”

For xTechSearch 2.0, up to 25 entrants were featured at this year’s Global Force Symposium. The 12 companies chosen to move on to the next round will receive $120,000 and an invitation to demonstrate their offering at the 2019 AUSA Annual Meeting later this year.

They are Lumineye; MELD Manufacturing; United Aircraft Technologies; Cogitari, Inc.; Great Lakes Sound and Vibration; AKHAN Semiconductor, Inc.; Novaa Limited; Spark Thermionics, Inc.; Olifant Medical; Vidrovr, Inc.; Antimicrobial Materials; and Valley Tech Systems.