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Fort Carson, Colo. – Divisions across the Army train with large-scale operation exercises to build team and unit cohesion throughout their organizations. These organizations must achieve strategic objectives with a combination of readiness, modernization, and adaptive approaches. This is to ensure leaders are developing effective communication and coordination with other echelons.
The 4th Infantry Division conducted Ivy Sting 3, a joint-staff development exercise and command post exercise at the Mission Training Complex at Fort Carson from April 22-26, 2024. This Is the third command post-exercise that took place in preparation for Ivy Mass.
The 4th Inf. Div. Soldiers established a division tactical headquarters by setting up base tents, staging military vehicles, and configuring equipment to create a semi-tactical environment for a more intense battle space. This was a change from Ivy Sting II where they primarily fought in an office setting.
“The training objectives for Ivy Sting III are integrating a lot of the enablers that, we are bringing together in Ivy mass,” said Lt. Col. Daniel Leard, the division’s operations chief. “Most importantly, is training the division staff to fight from the various command posts and having the staff not only fight the battle but develop the future situation, develop the commander's visualization and understanding of the future fight.”
A significant aspect of the exercise is to perform large-scale multi-domain operations which involve the integration of multiple domains, such as land, air, space, and cyberspace.
“The primary thing that we're trying to accomplish with integrating the domains is to increase the staff's capacity to think about multi-domain problems, particularly those exquisite space and cyber tools that are not owned by the division,” said Leard.
The division staff and our joint partners ability to effectively integrate and synchronize their military capabilities across multiple domains are tested on a simulated battlefield during the exercise.
Each section of the division staff contributed to the simulated combat operation by providing their expertise and support to the fight which is key to mission success.
“I think when we talk about MDO it starts with the threat,” said Lt. Col. Nick Pickford, the division's chief of intelligence operations. “As we look at a global environment that's more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous than it has been in years, we look at enemy formations that are close to near-peer in terms of their capabilities. A lot of it starts with how we breed understanding of the enemy and environment across the division staff.”
The division staff must have an identical understanding of the battlefield and the enemy, to communicate and disseminate the commander’s decisions to the subordinate and supporting units.
Therefore, leaders at every echelon have to think critically, communicate effectively, and build systems that convey a clear picture of the battlefield to units above and below. This will allow the units to be more prepared to transition to the live-fire training exercise.
“What we gain is staff proficiency at the division level, at the level that can sequence all of the Army's tactical capabilities with these exquisite strategic capabilities in space and time to achieve overmatch in the battlefield,” said Leard.“I'm really excited to see what we're able to achieve in Ivy Mass when we have not only live staff participants from a lot of these enabling capabilities but the live capabilities themselves.”
Training events such as Ivy Sting III, are vital for the division to continue to hone in on skills, coordination, and communication that lead to lethal teams and ready people.
After this training, the Ivy Division Soldiers will move forward to Ivy Mass, which is the joint live-fire training event designed to increase readiness and lethality within the division by stimulating combat scenarios with enemies across all levels of the battle space.
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