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By BRAD RHEN, Lebanon Daily News
INDIANTOWN GAP — More than 500 National Guardsmen from the 56th Stryker Brigade are at Fort Indiantown Gap participating in a weeklong exercise that is the largest and, according to the brigade’s commander, the most significant since the brigade converted to a Stryker brigade three years ago.
Known as “Warfighter,” the exercise brings together the brigade’s headquarters and members of the various units within the brigade as well as about 70 civilian contractors who would deploy with the brigade.
The exercise is primarily computer-simulated; there are no ground troops conducting maneuvers. It is being controlled by a 25-person group from the Army’s Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
“The computer simulation replicates the battlefield, the engagements, and it does real well at direct fire, indirect fire, chemical, air — all the forms of contact,” said Maj. Brian Ridley, the exercise control chief of the BCTP group from Fort Leavenworth.
However, Ridley said, the simulation is not effective at replicating other aspects of a deployment, including meeting with government officials and rebuilding infrastructure.
“A brigade commander in today’s modern battlefield can’t just worry about the direct fire, the indirect fire, the air, the electronic warfare,” he said. “What the sim can’t do, we complement with story lines. We create certain situations for the brigade, the commander and his staff to have to work through. Based off the decisions of the commander, there can be a negative or a positive effect.”
In addition to running the computer simulations, members of the BCTP group dress up in Middle-Eastern garb and act as role players for town-hall meetings.
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