Fort Johnson, La: Following a 500-mile air assault from Fort Campbell, Ky., down to a heavily wooded training site in Louisiana, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division spent a chunk of August testing out new tech and formations against an opposing force dubbed Geronimo.
The early verdict: More equipment is needed to prepare for a drone-riddled battlefield, while the division needs to relook its logistics footprint for an island-hopping campaign in the Indo-Pacific.
“We just do not have the density or the quality of our counter-UAS [unmanned aerial systems] that we would really need … for the future fight,” 101st Commanding General Maj Gen Brett Sylvia, told reporters August 22. “I believe that we’re moving in the right direction, that the limited capabilities that we’ve gotten are better than they’ve been, but we just don’t have the density … we would want,” he later added.
Likewise, Sylvia said he is walking away from the event knowing that as his division prepares for a long-range air assault in an area like the Indo-Pacific region, it needs to be prepared to better spread out its forward arming and refuelling points — more of a training and manning task.
Sylvia’s two initial homework takeaways came nine days into a rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Centre, or JRTC. His division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team is part of the Army’s new “transformation in contact” initiative designed to get soldiers’ feedback on new equipment faster, figure out how formations could use it and help guide leadership decisions. One of those key deciders is Army Chief of Staff Gen Randy George who hosted nearly a dozen reporters last week on a quick trip down to visit the division towards the tail end of the training event.
“We have to provide the best Army that we [can] with the people we have, with the budget that we have,” George told reporters. “Those will require tough decisions to say what we’re not gonna [do]. Our soldiers that are out there employing this are gonna tell us what … [are] not the best systems,” the four-star general added.
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