JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Soldier's from the U.S. Army's I Corps headquartered here participated in this year's inaugural Army Warfighting Assessment, Oct. 17-28, but instead of occupying the deserts of Fort Bliss, Texas and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico with the 1st Armored Division, they set up shop right here in the Pacific Northwest.
I Corps was the assessment's Combined Forces Land Component Command, serving as the headquarters for the 1st Armored Division. The Division led the ground fight from Fort Bliss, but reported to a higher command some 2,000 miles away.
"What's different with this AWA from years past is we put the majority of our Headquarters here at JBLM," said Col. Time King, deputy chief of staff for I Corps, "By doing this we were able to exercise some of the mission command systems from a real distance, and that comes with its own set of difficulties and helps build proficiency as we work through those problem sets."
Some 5,000 service members from across all the armed services participated in this year's AWA, along with five multinational partners from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
According to an Army press release, "AWA is the Chief of Staff of the Army's Force 2025 Maneuvers annual capstone exercise that will focus on the refinement and improvement of concepts and capabilities in live, virtual, and constructive domains."
Additionally, AWA serves as a force modernization exercise by field testing the applications of new equipment. Soldiers exercise new capabilities and provide feedback to the U.S. Army.
Aside from that, King says one of the best lessons AWA can provide is showing unit's how everything fits together on the battlefield.
"I think what we get out of this is units and Soldiers can learn what to expect from a Corps level fight," said King. "How we integrate the Air Force, deep fire, coalition partners… it's all the enablers that allow division's to fight effectively."
King also added the assessment allowed the Corps to train Soldiers and leaders who do not get to work at this level of command and control often, which helps build readiness and capability across the Corps.
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