HOHENFELS, Germany - 7th Army Training Command annually conducts exercise Saber Junction in the Hohenfels Training Area for U.S. Army Europe and Africa's permanently assigned brigades.
For Saber Junction 26, 173rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) is the primary participating brigade, with approximately 3,360 troops from the 173rd training alongside other U.S. Department of War units and European allies and partners, for a total of approximately 5,480 troops participating from Aug. 15-Sep. 13.
“It’s a crucible training event,” said Brig. Gen. Terry Tillis, 7th Army Training Command commander.
Tillis said, “It’s a place where brigade combat teams can come and train at the brigade level.”
“They can combine-arms maneuvers from the company, platoon, and individual soldier levels all the way back up to the brigade,” said Tillis.
Saber Junction is held at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, the primary combat training center for brigade-level units to continue training as they fight, achieve their mission-essential task list objectives, and consolidate lessons learned in innovation. JMRC provides unique conditions for brigades seeking to test their Soldiers as they operate across diverse terrain and weather, improving interoperability, readiness, and warfighting skills.
“Specifically in Europe, this is the crown jewel,” said Tillis.
“There's no place in Europe you can do something like this at scale with brigade combat teams facing a dedicated opposing force,” said Tillis.
“They're going to go at you from every different direction: deep to your flanks, and they're going to give you everything that they got, because that's what we've designed them to do,” said Tillis.
The opposing forces serve as an active, human element which simulates potential real-world adversaries and their equipment.
“We hit them hard up front with this opposing force,” Tillis said.
These units operate with tactical autonomy to expose weaknesses in the training brigade, forcing commanders to adapt under genuine battlefield stress.
“Our number one job here is to make sure we don’t make it easy on the rotational unit,” said Tillis.
“Think about this: three or four days in, when you’re averaging two to three hours of sleep, it’s 2 a.m., and that comes buzzing right at you,” said Tillis. “Think about how hard that is."
Russia's war on Ukraine has heightened unmanned aerial vehicles/systems are not just on the Ukrainian battlefield, but on battlefields around the globe.
Ukrainians have been working with 7th Army Training Command Soldiers with many UAS and counter-UAS systems brought back from Ukraine.
“We’ve had as many as 50 at one point,” said Tillis.
“They're here to not only help coach the opposing force to replicate the most challenging threat that you will face on the battlefield,” said Tillis.
This Joint Multinational Readiness Center combat training center exercise series supports NATO's Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, validates regional plans, enhances warfighting readiness, and employs cutting-edge capabilities to strengthen deterrence and defense across the European theater.
“We’re not reading it on a white paper,” said Tillis.
“We're taking it, we're operationalizing it, and we're putting it in the field to compete in,” said Tillis.
Saber Junction 26 seeks to reinforce the proficiencies of 7th Army Training Command Soldiers with many Soldiers operating friendly UAVs, while maintaining the overall force-wide ability to detect and neutralize enemy capabilities.
As Tillis mentioned earlier, the buzzing of a drone overhead is a reality Soldiers now face and train to counter. “This isn't like some of the other experiments that you'll see across the flank,” said Tillis.
“This is actual folks, for two weeks in the dirt, facing all the environment, facing the weather, and actually figuring out how they need to increase their rate of learning.” said Tillis.
“Not just, 'Hey, let's talk about it,” said Tillis.
“Let's actually go out there and change our behavior. And that's our purpose here, and that's the purpose of 7th Army Training Command underneath United States Army Europe and Africa,” said Tillis.