Soldiers assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, troubleshoot a satellite transportable terminal during Ivy Sting 3 at Fort Carson, Colorado, April 22, 2024. This satellite communication system is used to receive communications in the field and keep the entire division updated, informed, and situationally aware. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Mark Bowman)

Staff Sgt. Micah Salas, the 4th Infantry Division spectrum manager, and Staff Sgt. Jacob Moore, a spectrum manager for the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division spectrum, uses a spectrum analyzer to scan for radio signals in the area at Ivy Sting 3 at Fort Carson, Colorado, April 23, 2024. Spectrum managers monitor the radio spectrum to avoid conflicts and ensure efficient use of frequencies so units can communicate efficiently and understand the battle space. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Mark Bowman)

FORT CARSON, Colo. - At Ivy Sting 3, the 4th Infantry Division set up a mock headquarters, working with joint partners in a field environment to make certain the Ivy Division can get the mission done under all conditions. The roles the division and its brigades play in fighting and winning our nation’s wars require one thing in common: Soldiers must communicate.

The 4th Infantry Division's information technology section, better known as G6, must be prepared to set up all those communications, from radios to tactical internet, and operating satellite technology as well.

“This exercise focuses on fires, and really it’s the multi-domain fight,” said Lt. Col. Kenneth Roedl, the division information technology chief. “How does the division bring to bear all of its assets to enable the brigades to win the fight?”

Roedl’s section provides vital network infrastructure to enable the division combat elements to operate in multiple domains.

“If I can provide a reliable classified and unclassified environment, then the cyber domain can impact and affect its mission; the fires can impact and affect their mission,” said Roedl.

Keeping communications and other technology running is crucial to maintaining the Ivy Division’s role as the Army’s marquee multi-domain operations division.

Capt. Sean Capehart, network operations plans officer with G6, said that G6 supports multiple systems like artillery and air missile defense systems. Integrating systems into our G6 environment helps the division assign airspace.

“They're already out in the field, so that when things are moving throughout the battlefield, everybody knows what's going on,” said Capehart. “and when you actually go to fire a weapon or move a helicopter, you're not firing inside where your helicopters are flying.”

Air is not the only domain of operations reliant on G6 for mission success.

Spc. Sean Snyder, a satellite communication systems operator-maintainer assigned to Signal, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, stands on a ladder to service a satellite transportable terminal, a satellite communications system, at Fort Carson, Colorado, April 22, 2024. The Soldiers are participating in Ivy Sting 3, a command post exercise where Ivy Soldiers practice building lethal teams. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Woodlyne Escarne)

Spc. Sean Snyder, a satellite communication systems operator-maintainer assigned to Signal, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, explained that G6 also supports operations on land, for example by delivering critical information to Stryker vehicles on the battlefield.

Snyder said, “We would transmit to a satellite transportable terminal or a tactical communications node, and typically the TCN would provide the satellite communications that would be needed for the Strykers.”

Partnering with the Air Force and the Marine Corps brings its own set of challenges. Their information and networking platforms are different from what the division uses.

“They don’t use the exact same version of signal equipment we do,” said Capehart. “We have been addressing that discrepancy by talking to subject matter experts within the division, III Corps, and sometimes outside the Army itself.”

While many of these subject matter experts have worked at some of the highest echelons in the Army, many of the experts keeping the Army’s tech running operate are the newest in the force.

“Junior Soldiers are the experts who have to get out there,” said Roedl. “They’ve really got to be in the grind to make sure that Soldiers can get on their systems and fight, and see the picture and destroy the enemy.”

Ivy Sting 3 is the last of the large-scale combat operation scenario training events that lead up to Ivy Mass, a live-fire exercise that is designed to increase readiness and lethality by simulating combat with enemies through all domains of the battlespace.