Photo By Sgt. Danielle Sturgill | Soldiers of the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, 304th Civil Affairs Brigade, 353rd...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. – U.S. Army Reserve soldiers of the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, 304th Civil Affairs Brigade, 353rd Civil Affairs Command, conducted a situational training exercise at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, June 3-10, 2026. The scenario-based exercise, created with the help of artificial intelligence, trains civil affairs teams to engage with and influence local populations and authorities to shape the civil environment and prepare for military operations.
During the exercise, 411th CA BN soldiers conducted civil reconnaissance, engagements, and knowledge integration. Using the relationships built with the local population and networks allows them to support the commander’s decisions and missions.
“Using AI as a vehicle allows us to streamline point A to point Z,” said U.S. Army Cpt. Arthur Jones IV, 411th BN and future operations officer.
“The initial inception of where we want to go with the training, and then the desired effect or outcome of the training.”
In December of 2025, the U.S. Department of War announced the launch of Google Cloud’s Gemini for Government, also known as GenAI, the approved AI platform for all service members and DOW employees.
“Soldiers want to do the thinking,” said Maj. Gen. Jeff Farris, commanding general of U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne).
“The system helps create the data, output and products that you need to present to the commander. That saves them a lot of time and gets them back to being creative and critical thinkers.”
By integrating AI into the military decision-making process, the 411th CA BN is able to improve planning efficiency, support analytical capabilities and enable more agile, adaptive operations.
“Given what the civil affairs mission set is and how we train those mission-essential tasks, I think it can help save a lot of time,” said Cpt. Hector Perez, chief of operations for the 411th.
“It can help create more complex scenarios or exercises and substantially augment our ability to get after the commander's intent.”
According to the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, GenAI has already reached 1 million active users with over 40 million prompts entered. More than 3 million government civilian employees and military personnel use GenAI in their daily workflow.
“If you don't evolve, you get left behind,” said Jones. “We want to adapt, we want to evolve, we want to modify and be flexible in our thinking.”
During the training, Soldiers explored how Al supports research, planning and administrative tasks while maintaining human oversight in decision-making.
“AI is like a battle buddy,” Farris said. “You have something there with you to help you not only make decisions, but be more effective.”
| Date Taken: | 06.06.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2026 15:21 |
| Story ID: | 567238 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 38 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Army Reserve Civil Affairs Soldiers Train Using AI-Driven Scenarios, by SGT Danielle Sturgill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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