Infantry regiment trains Soldiers to engage near-peer adversaries

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Debra Richardson | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jon Markle, assigned to Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, stationed at Hohenfels, Germany, watched an approaching CH-47 Chinook during the Joint Warfighter Assessment 18 (JWA). The Army's most demanding challenge is the ability to deter or defeat the threat posed by nation states, and Apache Company's role is to be opposing forces for units training. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Debra Richardson)  

GERMANY

04.24.2018

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Debra Richardson 

319th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

HOHENFELS, Germany—After years of consistent deployments to the Middle East, much of the Army training is now focused on ensuring units are capable of fighting a more national, mechanized and technologically advanced enemy. Some training facilities, such as Hohenfels Training Area, have already transitioned to replicate the challenges of the modern battlefield.

This transition has become a reality for Soldiers participating in Joint Warfighting Assessment 18 (JWA) and is especially noticeable among those soldiers roleplaying as the opposing forces (OPFOR) within the exercise scenarios. OPFOR replicates the enemy threat so units participating in training rotations at Hohenfels can experience scenarios created from real-time intelligence and in-depth research.

According to 1st Lt. Matthiew Carr, assigned to Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, the battalion must act as OPFOR for every unit training here while also completing their required training.

While Carr laments that the operational tempo of the 1-4 Infantry Regiment is fast paced and demanding, he believes it’s a worthwhile experience for both him, as an inexperienced officer learning the ropes, and his Soldiers.

“It’s a massive advantage for a junior officer like myself to have the ability to maneuver over and over and see the mistakes others consistently make,” Carr said. “We have the opportunity to identify our own shortfalls but also watch and learn from our partner nationals who come to Hohenfels to train.”

As the Army prepares to battle and defeat future adversaries, the OPFOR mission changes and adapts to the needs of the Army, sometimes on a weekly basis.

The entire 1-4 Infantry Regiment, tasked to be OPFOR, sports tidy blue uniforms with nametapes and rank, a stark contrast to the traditional middle-eastern attire typically worn by OPFOR when training soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. The OPFOR’s new wardrobe represents the shift from guerilla warfare to future adversaries who are expected to clearly identify themselves as being members of a national army.

“As the opposing force, we assess different threats throughout the world to include different conflicts and different countries,” said Capt. Dan Dipzinski, commander of Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. “We work very closely with the intelligence community, and we come up with a threat template that we want to replicate during training here at Hohenfels. We evaluate different techniques that the enemy may be employing and different technologies that we may or may not have.”

Aside from the benefit of being exposed to the most up-to-date intelligence about specific adversaries, the 1-4 Infantry Brigade benefits by learning from the mistakes of those they train.

“Being the opposing force in training allows us to see the training from a different side so we can see what the enemy would see, and this allows us to learn from their mistakes,” explained Spc. Tanner Johnson, an infantryman assigned to Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Division. “This kind of training benefits us because when we take those lessons learned and adapt them into our own training, the results are evident.”

• Date Taken: 04.24.2018
• Date Posted: 04.27.2018 07:53
• Story ID: 274733
• Location: DE
• Hometown: RENNES, ILLE-ET-VILAINE, FR
• Hometown: GAYLORD, MICHIGAN, US