Photo By Sgt. Danielle Rodrigues | Members of Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Infantry...... read more read more
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HOHENFELS, Germany - Blue Forces are the good guys; Opposition Forces are the bad guys. It was BLUFOR versus OPFOR over three weeks in January and February during Exercise Allied Spirit IV at the U.S. Army's Joint Multinational Readiness Center's (JMRC) Hohenfels Training Area, in Germany.
More than 2,400 troops from seven nations have convened, here, to conduct tactical training focused on multinational unified land operations during this U.S. Army Europe-directed exercise.
Allied Spirit IV kicked off Jan. 10 when temperatures were below freezing and a heavy snowfall had blanketed the training area with snow. After the first week, the snow turned to slush and the frozen ground to mud.
In these conditions, on the hilly and forested terrain of this 40,000-acre training facility, known to most as "The Box," BLUFOR is challenged by a formidable opponent -- 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment -- known as OPFOR.
The infantrymen of OPFOR wear black uniforms that designate them as the enemy. They conduct everything from conventional ambushes to guerilla raids and even simulated poison gas attacks, to test the BLUFOR's capabilities and abilities to communicate and operate together in challenging scenarios and terrain in less-than-favorable conditions.
The OPFOR keep the BLUFOR's hands full while in The Box. After all, this is the OPFOR's home turf. They know the terrain, and they play this role during nearly a dozen training rotations a year.
JMRC's Hohenfels Training Area is smaller than both the arid National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and the marshy woodlands of the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, but JMRC offers an intensely rugged and constrained terrain that favors the OPFOR.
"Of the three training centers that the United States Army has, The Box at Hohenfels is the most unique, with potentially the most difficult terrain," said Lt. Col. Matthew Archambault, the 1-4 commander. "With the hills, the intervisibility lines, the foliage that's out there and all the trails, the terrain here provides us the home field advantage. We know certain trails. People here for the first time, they're going to look at those trails and think that's too steep -- they're not going to want to go certain places. A brigade staff or even a battalion staff training here really has to think about how to employ its weapons systems and all its assets in order to be effective."
"The Box itself is its own challenge," said Lt. Col. Eric Remoy, senior intelligence officer for JMRC. He noted that the BLUFOR will face a variety of challenges during Allied Spirit IV.
"You can't afford to underestimate the terrain and its effects on maneuver, communications and observation if you want to be a successful unit here," he said. "The weather can make some pretty big swings in a short amount of time, so leader engagement in monitoring the safety of their units becomes even more important. It has been almost 40 degrees today, but just four days ago, it was 10 degrees and there were eight inches of snow in the training area. Now it is icy mud."
Role players in The Box's villages simulate a complex urban environment where civilians and media are present and mixed with OPFOR insurgents.
Remoy said rotational units face an increased density of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), which are available to the OPFOR, that present the challenge of a competitive airspace environment and increased observed artillery fires. In addition, simulations of social media platforms test how the training units react to public perception of their activities. This provides the opportunity for the OPFOR to seed threads of disinformation and challenge public opinion as well, Remoy added.
"In terms of the contemporary information environment, it is pretty realistic," Remoy said.
Participants in Allied Spirit IV included units from Canada, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, the U.K. and the U.S.
Italy's Garibaldi Brigade served as the brigade headquarters for the exercise, which is the first time for the Italian military.
U.S. Army units that participated included the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the 173rd Airborne Brigade and several units from the Army National Guard.
Units augmenting the 1-4 on the OPFOR side included an Italian infantry platoon from the 1st Granatieri Regiment; Slovenia's 45th Center for Tracked Combat Vehicles (CGBV), which has permanently stationed four M-84 battle tanks in Hohenfels; the 1192nd Engineer Company from the Ohio National Guard; and 130 Soldiers from the Louisiana National Guard, most from D Company, 2nd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment.
"Our job is to provide the toughest, most realistic opponent to the rotational units that come here to train," Archambault said. "The operating environment that we attempt to replicate is based upon the hybrid threat that we currently envision in the world, based upon our experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and basically, the last 15 to 20 years that we've been watching how things have changed and what we could possibly face."
Archambault explained the hybrid threat as a mixture of Cold War-type conventional forces with special purpose forces, guerilla forces, insurgents and even criminal elements.
"We replicate all of that," he said.
According to the 1-4 Command Sgt. Major, Robin Bolmer, the Soldiers of 1-4 Infantry are highly motivated and versatile in their role as OPFOR.
"Our attitude is that we're going to win, no one can beat us," Bolmer said.
"One day we go out in black uniforms and Humvee gun trucks, and the nex, we could be out in civilian clothes in SUVs doing (improvised explosive device) complex attacks on convoys," said Sgt. Derek Jacobson, of C Company, 1-4 Infantry Battalion.
Jacobson played the role of the commander of the South Atropian People's Army (SAPA) in the exercise. SAPA, a simulated insurgent group, tests the rotational training units' abilities engage organizations with indeterminate allegiances.
"The bottom line is that as long as the RTUs (rotational training units) meet their training objective, that's what we're here for," he said.
| Date Taken: | 01.31.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.10.2016 16:38 |
| Story ID: | 188500 |
| Location: | HOHENFELS, BY, DE |
| Web Views: | 247 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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