In preparation for the 341st Military Intelligence Battalion’s upcoming Panther Strike Exercise in June and Delta Company 898th Brigade Engineer Battalion’s rotation to the National Training Center, the units teamed up for a multi-intelligence exercise, Panther Strike Lite during February Inactive Duty Training weekend.
The exercise simulated the environment that both units will experience at their collective training exercises later this year.
“This was a huge win for the entire intelligence enterprise concept in our state,” said Lt. Col. Teresa Wenner, commander of the 341st Military Intelligence Battalion. “We not only had our soldiers but reached across the table and had intelligence professionals from the 81st Stryker Brigade Combat Team.”
Panther Strike was a two-week human intelligence, counterintelligence and signal intelligence exercise at Camp Williams, Utah. It is the largest intelligence exercise in the Army, with 800 participants from multiple countries. Panther Strike Lite gave the unit a chance to train on their collective tasks while building toward a full battalion exercise in Utah in 2021.
“This was a great cross training and efficient use of time for our Human Intelligence and Counterintelligence,” said Wenner. “We were able to get through our individual collective task and then start bringing in other intelligence professionals to create fusion.”
Training began in January for the units as they held a classroom portion of the training at the Information Operations Readiness Center. Military intelligence instructors and external evaluators from active duty Army, Utah National Guard and National Guard Bureau came to Joint Base Lewis-McChord to teach, observe and assist with the training during the six-day exercise.
“We used our resources and foundry funds, as well as the 898th,” said Wenner. “This allowed for us to share resources.”