WASHINGTON – The Army’s new annual war game for developing new technologies and concepts will emphasize joint and international cooperation, said Brig. Gen. John Charlton, of Brigade Modernization Command.
Dubbed the Army Warfighter Assessment (AWA), the exercise will be part of the service's Force 2025 maneuvers, a catch-all for a variety of experiments and exercises aimed at transforming concepts into capabilities into a real part of the force, Charlton said Monday at the AUSA exposition.
Planning is still underway for the AWA, which will be shaped by the Army's new operating concept, "Win in a Complex World." Army planners have identified 20 challenges that the new concept poses, from cyber electromagnetic operations to increased situational understanding, and will use those challenges to draw up both the AWA and an expanded Network Integration Exercise (NIE), Charlton said.
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Next month, Training and Doctrine Command and the assistant Army secretary for acquisition will release a sources-sought notice asking industry to pitch a broad range of capabilities to go into the AWA.
"It gives industry the opportunity to interface with soldiers so there is some incentive there," Charlton said. "We will have to work with industry to develop some funding solutions to get your capabilities out there. I think it will be mutually beneficial."
Charlton said a division will supply the higher headquarters for the exercise, while a hybrid conventional-irregular threat opposition force will be outfitted with flying drones, cyber and electronic warfare capabilities.
The Army is also in detailed planning aiming to involve UK forces, the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy.
"We don't have a Joint Forces Command, so this gives us a venue to look at that very, very closely," Charlton said.
Changes ahead for NIE
In October 2016, the AWA will replace one of the Army's Network Integration Exercises at Fort Bliss, Texas. Where the NIE sought to evaluate network technology, the AWA is not a test, and it will not look solely at gear.
The NIE itself will evolve. A year from now, it will be the final proof-of-concept for the AWA. But by 2020, it is expected to yield expeditionary command posts and to have led the transition from various battle command systems to a single, common operating environment. At that point, it will be replaced by a Capabilities Integration Assessment.
Other war-games and tabletop exercises will contribute to the AWA. In turn, as concepts mature, they will move to the CIA, where they will be tested before fielding to the Army, Charlton said.
