 Universities and industry in the Northeast region joined ranks with the US Army in a science and technology endeavor that officials hope will make tomorrow's soldiers stronger and safer. Soldiers carrying things out in the field, really just a big, big improvement. The US Army Research Laboratory, with its main facilities in Maryland, has recently established regional presences in California, Texas and Illinois. Now, ARL Northeast is opening its doors at Northeastern University near Boston. So here at the Costas Research Institute, we work on a wide range of homeland and national security-related issues from cyber at the tactical edge to advanced materials research and manufacturing to the development of state-of-the-art mobile command posts. Government officials, including the Massachusetts Congressional delegation and the Commonwealth Governor, welcome the Army Research Laboratory to the region. As Senator, I sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and so I get to see every day the importance of the intersection between our defense work and our research work and how this is what protects America's future. That means that I understand how important it is that soldiers are properly outfitted with the most cutting-edge equipment and technology so they can do their jobs effectively, and most of all so they can come home safely. Four years ago, the Army Research Lab started to extend its presence across the nation so it could tap into regional talent in science and technology. ARL Northeast completes that picture. This is the last in our expansion, so we are so excited to be here. Now, this ecosystem will bring together all the partners who have access to each other's people, each other's institutions, each other's facilities, and oh, eventually, finances, resources. The laboratory has embraced the open campus concept because proximity is the path to research success, Percanti said. We want to start first with ideas, and then we want to become friends because we want to develop trust, and we want to develop trust by proximity to get to know one another because for us, collaboration is about true partnership. Our successes are linked together, our failures are linked together, and it's only through proximity that we eventually become friends and be successful. The director said the laboratory looks forward to continuing and growing many historic collaborations with a wide range of regional partners that make up ARL Northeast. The commanding general of the U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command, Major General Cedric T. Wins, said his command is actively seeking out collaborative efforts. The Army needs these partnerships because as our Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, has said, the character of war is changing. The pace and spread of technological change has a lot to do with that. Wins said America's adversaries are just as focused on wiping out any advantage that may be developed. If we take our eye off the ball on basic and applied research, future soldiers will pay the price down the line. The governor of Massachusetts said the Army has come to the right region for science and technology. If you take a look at the arc of all the work that's been done, which has been spoken about already, on the next generation of supporting warfighters and our military and our national security, nobody plays out of their way class the way Massachusetts does. And it's a real tribute to the people who are part of this community that over and over again the best and biggest ideas come from here. From Burlington, Massachusetts, David McNally, ARL TV.