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FORT BLISS, Texas-- Soldiers from 1st Armored Division conducted a week-long test of collective tasks, ranging from maneuvers to communication, during a command post exercise at Fort Bliss, Texas Feb 5-10, 2023.
The CPX is part of an ongoing series of training events that enhance both the Division’s readiness and capabilities. During the exercise, soldiers, down to the youngest private, were given the opportunity to sharpen skills required to conduct large-scale contingency operations, while mastering operational processes and remaining synchronized with fellow divisions and III Corps, as the higher headquarters.
“The CPX is a logical progression in our training glide-path to build proficiency for the division headquarters,” Maj. Gen. James P. Isenhower III, 1AD commander, said. “It’s the way we train our division staff, and what it can do to synchronize brigade fights, coordinate with higher headquarters, and make sure we employ the division as a unit of action against an adversary.”
With just over 500 participants, the exercise centered around a fictional adversary’s advance on NATO partner, Lithuania. The scenario “stressed” systems to identify any gaps or shortcomings in the unit’s ability to smoothly deploy for combat operations across the world.
“This is a departure from what many of us are used to based on our experience in combat over the last 20 years in a counter insurgency environment,” Isenhower said. “This is large-scale combat operations categorized by near-peer enemies.”
The CPX also required the unit to move the entire command post at a moment’s notice. Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1AD Commander Lt. Col. Laura Weimer said that over the course of the last decade’s conflicts, it has become clear that mobility is key to current combat operations.
“We have to make sure we are not visible to be a target,” Weimer said. “We have to be more mobile because the enemy has greater capability to range us with fires, and with electronic warfare so our ability to hide, both visibly, and our ability to hide because we move rapidly, has dictated a lot of our training.”
Tasked with managing, directing and synchronizing to improve operational readiness and to enhance warfighting functions, the Division staff got valuable hands-on time with the Army’s command application; the Command Post Computing Environment, which provided a common operating picture for all participants on the faux battlefield. This common operating picture will be critical to the culminating event, Warfighter, which the unit will complete later this year.
“I’m extremely proud of the division staff,” Isenhower said. “I am extremely proud of all the subordinate units that have fought for us in what has been a pretty synchronized fight. The staff has performed magnificently. I’m really excited to get into Warfighter and just watch what this staff can do and how it’s going to perform.”
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 02.16.2023 18:35 |
| Story ID: | 438231 |
| Location: | EL PASO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 85 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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