New challenges await Army units at the National Training Center

@Sfc Thomas Livingston Interesting post.

..."The 11th ACR also has expanded to using Gray Eagle drone capabilities, lethal drone simulations, drone swarms and 4G LTE cellular networks to tie the visiting unit in a kind of virtual web of surveillance and reconnaissance.

And the invisible battle for situational awareness extends to the social realm.

The “transparent battlefield” that Curtis and his staff are creating comes with its own versions of Facebook and Twitter. The installation is also working with synthetic training entities in the Army to find more accurate ways to simulate weapons effects, from small arms to artillery and bombs.

That’s an effort to get tactical level soldiers and operational commanders a more realistic feel for what happens when they conduct a strike or get hit themselves.

Home unit cavalry soldiers have even experimented with 3D printed “bomblets” dropped from hobby drones, much like what fighters saw in the war in Syria in recent years.

“We didn’t tell the OPFOR to do any of that,” Taylor said.

His staff gave the 11th ACR soldiers a 3D printer. They already had 40 quadcopters at their disposal so they created a “poor man’s air-delivered minefield” to flummox commanders they were pitted against.

In November, NTC will send its first exportable training package to Hawaii to train 25th Infantry Division soldiers, Taylor said."