Joint Warfighting Assessment experiments with formations and concepts during Avenger Triad in Europe

By Jonathan KoesterSeptember 21, 2024

1st Cavalry Division Conducts Avenger Triad 24
Maj. Ryan Hamilton, a field artillery officer with the 1st Cavalry Division Artillery, discusses with Polish officers over a map during Avenger Triad 24, Sept. 12, 2024, in Boleslawiec, Poland. Avenger Triad 24 is a U.S. Army Europe and Africa command post exercise with U.S. Army, NATO and multinational organizations occurring 9-19 September 2024, in multiple locations in Europe. Incorporating lessons learned from Austere Challenge 24, this exercise implements operational concepts, doctrine and procedures to increase readiness, enhance interoperability, employ new concepts, and inform regional planning. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Hector Blanco) VIEW ORIGINAL

As part of the U.S. Army’s campaign of persistent experimentation to transform our future fighting force, the Army Modernization Enterprise gathered in Europe this month to participate in Avenger Triad / Joint Warfighting Assessment 24.

The U.S. Army Europe and Africa-led Avenger Triad command post exercise involved 2,000 U.S. participants, and 2,000 multinational participants from Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

In conjunction with Avenger Triad 24, the U.S. Army Joint Modernization Command conducted Joint Warfighting Assessment 24 to experiment with and assess 2030 force structure, formations and capabilities. Operational units in AvT24 replicated these future formations to assess how the Army can transform and design for future warfare. The four future formations looked at during AvT/JWA 24 were the Theater Strikes Effects Group, Theater Information Advantage Detachment, Long-Range Fires Battalion and the Armored Division of 2030.

Experimenting with and assessing these future formations and their capabilities in theater is critical to understanding how the future Army will actually fight, said JMC Commander Brig. Gen. Zachary Miller.

“This is a Joint Warfighting Assessment that directly informs modernization decisions that are going to deliver the multi-domain operations Army of 2030 and the Army of 2040 and beyond,” Miller said. “Avenger Triad is incredibly important because when you’re able to experiment in-theater with operational units, you’re able to better understand the challenges and the opportunities associated with executing the Army’s and the Joint Force’s mission in a critical part of the world.”

That thought is shared by Col. Derek Bothern of Army Futures Command’s All-Domain Sensing Cross-Functional Team. Bothern has been participating in JWA experimentation in various capacities during the past five years.

“In the beginning, the majority of our experimentation events were inside the United States,” Bothern said. “During our persistent experimentation push, we’re going out to those combatant commands, who have unique issues and unique operational requirements. And now, instead of testing a piece of equipment in the United States, then fielding it out and finding all these issues because they weren't designed to work in 90 percent humidity, 365 days a year, or they have problems when they hit 140 degrees. By putting them into the Soldiers into the locations where they would be used, what we’re able to do is get more data so that when we actually field the system, the system will be correct for that area.”

Lt. Col. Noah Ebaugh and Cpt. Briana Gann participated in Joint Warfighting Assessment 24 as part of Army Capability Manager Formations - Intelligence. Their work was focused on experimentation with future Army formations, the Theater Strikes Effects Group and the Theater Information Advantage Detachment.

The TSEG is a future formation that focuses on the need to create and exploit space domain effects and integrate joint space effects. JWA 24 examined how best to employ TSEG capabilities to conduct multi-domain operations in the EUCOM theater. The TIAD is a future formation that would converge information-related capabilities to enable cross-domain maneuver in competition, armed conflict and the return to competition. The TIAD would enable delivery of info, reassure action partners and attack appropriate info-related elements of combat power across all domains. JWA 24 assessed the authorities, processes and procedures required to employ a TIAD during conflict.

“Both formations will incorporate intelligence Soldiers from multiple disciplines,” Ebaugh said. “We are assessing the role that these formations will play in support of the theater, and what type of Intel Soldiers and what education level they need in order to perform well in these formations.”

Gann is an acquisition officer, and she said that she is taking pride in helping inform the Army of the future, and at the same time, she is learning things that will help her in her next job as an assistant product manager looking at developing Army materiel solutions.

“Observing warfighters with experimental technology and experimental formations, and coming out to this assessment, helps set the stage for me to be better prepared in my next role,” Gann said. “I’m getting exposure to echelons that I've not participated in, so I’m seeing, even outside of experimental formations, how a theater would command and control. How they would use what they have available, all their enablers, to extend their operational reach.”

With Avenger Triad/Joint Warfighting Assessment 24, the Army Futures Command’s campaign of learning through persistent experimentation marches on. During experimentation events throughout the year, the Army modernization enterprise is learning lessons on future concepts, formations and capabilities that will feed into Project Convergence Capstone 5, scheduled for the spring of 2025.