YAKIMA TRAINING CENTER, Washington - The 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division culminated the 7th Infantry Division's live-action exercise Bayonet Focus-19-01 here, May 13.
The Lancer Brigade participation at YTC complemented the concurrent I Corps hosted Joint Warfighting Assessment 2019 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Run by the Joint Modernization Command, the JWA is an annual training exercise held with multiple partner-nations to ensure interoperability and test equipment in a complex war environment.
"We're asking the leaders of today to fight in the future, and in all environments," said Brig. Gen. Johnny K. Davis, the JMC commanding general. "Future military operations will involve satellites orbiting the Earth; naval, air and land forces; and actions in cyberspace."
The equipment being validated was tested to see how well it worked and how it could be improved. Real-time feedback of equipment successes and challenges from the Lancer Brigade and service members participating enabled contractors, and state and federal stakeholders to continue developing strategic plans toward modernizing the force.
The Lancer Brigade showcased four pieces of equipment during BF 19-01 to key civilian and military leaders.
With the Lancer battle space, the MR 2300 IR Illuminator, an illumination device that increases the effectiveness of night vision devices and infrared cameras was tested. Furthermore, the capabilities of the Small Unmanned Aerial System "Instant Eye" drone, the Instrument Set, Reconnaissance and Survey kit known as ENFIRE, and an Electronic warfare suite were shown by U.S. Army Cavalry Scouts and Electronic Warfare Soldiers of the Lancer Brigade.
"For a long time, we were doing that [surveillance] with binoculars and a little bit of Soldier know-how," said Maj. David M. Sherck, 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment executive officer. "Recently we've been capable of better communication thanks to tools that enable our scouts. We're taking all these pieces of technology and adding it to our scouts to allow them to develop better information first about the enemy."
Additionally, the electronic warfare capabilities were touched on during several displays of the equipment in a two-week period.
"This has never been established before," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Merrill C. Mortensen, a brigade electronic warfare technician. "We're building this all from scratch and learning as we go. We've already had great success integrating the new equipment in the field."
The Lancer Brigade will continue to train and provide feedback on this equipment to the JMC for continual improvement as they will travel to their capstone training exercise at National Training Center based at Fort Irwin, California, later this year.
"This is our opportunity to show that we can execute Gen. (Mark) Milley's number one priority of readiness, and modernize the force at the same time," said Chung.
The culminating training exercise for the Lancers consisted of providing security for the notional country of "Moravi" while eliminating aggressors who invaded their land.
"This is a huge opportunity for myself," said Col. Jonathan Chung, brigade commander. "I just took command on the 16th of April. You rarely get a chance to see your entire brigade and understand how big it is, and the first real opportunity I got was participating in something that's really significant for the Army."
The Lancers honed their skills on troop leading procedures, offensive and defensive operations, electronic warfare, stability operations and conflict resolution on its home turf for use in future combat operations.
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