FORT CARSON, Colo.-- Ivy Sting 3 is a week-long command post exercise at Fort Carson, Colo. taking place April 22-26, 2024, that develops leaders from the different staff sections of the 4th Infantry Division headquarters. These Soldiers are coming together to think, prepare, and take action in a large-scale combat operation scenario to prepare for Ivy Mass, the division’s upcoming joint and multi-domain live-fire exercise.
Among the critical sections involved is the G39, or the information warfare enterprise staff section.
The G39 is responsible for the integration of information operations, psychological operations, space operations, and cyber-electromagnetic activities into operational planning. The primary sections that make up the G39 are the mission support office, the military intelligence office, and the land component command office, but the section can also be augmented with Soldiers from the signal, public affairs, and space sections.
The mission support office is akin to the backbone of the G39. They handle the logistical, administrative, and resource management tasks that make the entire operation possible.
“We have to think about problems differently,” says Maj. Jonathan Hudson, the division's plans officer in the G39. “That's going to involve us leaning more on some of the information-related capabilities, like cyberspace electronic warfare. We have to fight a little bit smarter and employ these multi-domain capabilities with a level of depth that I think will allow us to get after the commander's objectives.”
Typically, Hudson does long-range planning for the division, planning years into the future, but in this environment he applies his expertise of long-range planning toward operations that will take place more than four days away.
The military intelligence section would be the brain of the G39. With their ability to analyze and process information, they provide the critical insights and data that drive strategic decision making in the section.
“With training events like Ivy Sting, the 4th Infantry Division builds towards being the marquee multi-domain operations division while training their Soldiers to be all they can be,” said Lt. Col. Nick Pickford, the division's chief of intelligence operations. “We take those lessons learned and practically apply them to things like Ivy Sting 3 and Ivy Mass when we're training. When you have a Soldier that's been able to see how their capabilities are leveraged in the real world, it makes it easier to then build that into our systems and processes from a training environment so we stand ready.”
When not working in the G39, Pickford is responsible for directing, supervising, and coordinating the planning, collection, evaluation, fusion, analysis, production, and dissemination of all-source intelligence at all echelons.
The land component command represents the ground forces. They would be the muscles as they are directed by the overall strategy built by the G39. They take conceptual ideas and turn them into orders.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Horrace, the division’s targeting officer, contributes to the G39, and is responsible for training, operations, plans, force development, and modernization for the division.
Horrace said his section contributes as a member of the G39 by providing expert insight into the targeting process, as well as the feasible way to accomplish these insights.Additionally, when the division needs lethal effects from joint assets, Horrace’s team coordinates and synchronizes those requests into the targeting cycle.
The information warfare enterprise staff section is the command center for multi-domain operations. Their inclusion into operational planning shapes the battlefield and gives the command a decisive advantage.
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.
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