FORT BRAGG, North Carolina -- The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division successfully completed the first Tier II Certification under the Military Intelligence Training Strategy (MITS) this week, March 4 through 8, at the Fort Bragg Foundry training site.
The MITS is a 4-tier training system, developed by the Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, as a standardized, quantifiable evaluation system which allows intelligence leaders and soldiers to conduct focused training toward defined goals.
The tiers are sequenced in order from IV (individual training), to III (intelligence crews), to II (intelligence platforms) and finally to I (BCT level exercises). The intent of the training cycle is to complete a Tier I certification immediately before a BCT combat training center exercise, like those conducted at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana or the National Training Center in California.
The Military Intelligence Company from the 127th Airborne Engineer Battalion, along with the 1BCT S2 Intelligence section, conducted the Tier III certification 25 February to 1 March, then immediately continued into the Tier II certification 4 to 8 March. The two-week field training exercise validated all nine crews within the warfighting function, which is no easy task in the high operational tempo of the 82nd Airborne.
"It is typically very difficult to conduct a training event like this, where all Intelligence personnel across the brigade are protected on the calendar to train and work together," said Maj. William Denn, the 1BCT S2 Intelligence Officer. "The ability to get working repetitions for all of our teams collaborating before our CTC this summer, is critical to our success."
This training event had the attention of senior leaders and civilians throughout the Military Intelligence community. Foundry site managers from every major Army installation, senior leaders from INSCOM (the Intelligence and Security Command) and G2 leaders from FORSCOM were all in attendance over the past two weeks to observe the training and record best practices, as this 4-Tier system will be refined and eventually put into practice across the Army.
Training on the many tactical intelligence systems, such as DCGS-A, tactical ground station, Prophet sensors and the Trojan data networks, is vital to the overall success of the intelligence mission.
This Tier II training prepares the warfighting function to better support and collaborate with the other warfighting functions when 1BCT conducts Brigade-level training in the coming months, culminating for the intelligence section in a JRTC rotation later this year.
"The ability to exercise all of our personnel, from analysts to intelligence collectors to equipment maintainers, is critical as we train to win in large scale combat operations on austere and contested battlefields," said Maj. Denn. "It facilitates the learning process for all of our teams to work together as a more cohesive warfighting function."
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