From September 28 to October 3, 2025, the CEA of Gramat and Thiot Ingénierie have the honor of hosting the 74th edition of the ARA meetings in Gramat, near Rocamadour, in the Lot department (France).
What are the ARA meetings?
Since its inception in 1961, the ARA (originally, the Aeroballistic Range Association) has served as a meeting point for facilities engaged in research and development using guns and related launchers. The ARA annual meetings are attended by an international group of scientists and engineers from government, academia, and industry involved in various aspects of maintaining, upgrading, and utilizing launcher technology for a variety of research applications, mostly involving defense or aerospace applications. The meeting is primarily composed of technical talks presented by the ARA members.
Information about facility design, instrumentation development and range operations is shared among the membership through informal papers presented at annual meetings held at member facilities. Topics covered include:
- ballistic range operation;
- instrumentation for studying dynamic mechanical events;
- exterior and terminal ballistics research technology;
- development of research launchers;
- evaluation of range accidents;
- impact mechanics and shock physics research technology;
- evaluation of high speed vehicle flight characteristics;
- armor development technology;
- non-classical applications of gun-related testing.
