Army Prepares for Future War

By Kris Osborn

Soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division flew through the sky as part of a forced entry air assault jump into hostile territory before setting up a perimeter, securing their forced landing and unleashing full-scale combat operations upon battle enemies – all as part of an ongoing Army exercise at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

The Army is finishing up a massive mock-combat drill in the desert designed to assess next-generation technologies, refine doctrine, advance communication with NATO allies and prepare soldiers for the warfare of tomorrow, service officials said.

While the Army’s Network Integration Evaluations have been going on for years, this year marks the first time NATO allies are participating in a large-scale fashion, Army spokesman Paul Mehney told Scout Warrior. This marks a change in the way the Army is using these type of events he explained. “This NIE marks an important change, it serves as a proof of concept for yearly large scale Army Warfighter Assessments. These assessments will help assess technology and the doctrine behind how the Army fights in an effort to inform future Army modernization efforts.”

The exercise includes more than 9,000 U.S. and coalition soldiers from 14 different NATO countries, supported by 3,000 civilians, he added.

 ”We are looking at what technological and doctrinal lessons we can learn as we stand up coalition networks. We are also enabling British soldiers to get on some American equipment and operate side by side with American Army units.” Mehney explained.

British soldiers have been driving U.S. Army Stryker vehicles as part of a broader effort to enhance communications technologies and interoperability among NATO forces.

The combat drills now underway include forced-entry operations, cyber defense, stability operations with local populations, defensive combat operations, perimeter protection and weapons of mass destruction detection and neutralization, among other things.