During the Valiant Shield 24 (VS24) exercise, Joint forces focused on detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging units at sea, in the air, in space, on land, and in cyberspace, all important areas of experimentation for an Army Modernization Enterprise looking at the best way to do that over vast areas.
Six teams from the U.S. Army Joint Modernization Command (JMC) spread out through the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) area of responsibility in June to gather Army transformation observations and insights during Project Convergence-Pacific 24 (PC-P24), parts of which were tied to the VS24 exercise.
The Army made significant strides in its effort to transform for future warfare during PC-P24, as the Joint Fires Network experimented with machine-to-machine communication, the 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) experimented with integration into a Joint Task Force, and the Army, Air Force and Navy experimented with integration into a Guam Command Center.
VS24, which took place from June 7-18, is led by USINDOPACOM as a multinational field training exercise focused on achieving interoperability in an all-domain environment. The exercise included forces from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, Space Force, and partner nations.
For PC-P24, JMC sent teams to Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Guam, and Washington state to gather Army transformation insights.
JMC Commander Col. Zachary Miller, while visiting JMC teams in the Philippines and Japan during PC-P 24, said the PC-P experiment was an important part of Army Futures Command’s in-contact, deliberate, and concept-driven transformation efforts.
“The insights we are gaining during this experimentation will lead directly into Project Convergence Capstone 5 in the spring,” Miller said. “With command-and-control nodes spread throughout the Pacific, we are experimenting with our network and communications and making progress in how we fight with our Joint and multinational partners across vast distances.”
Cpt. Darryl Honoré of JMC’s Operations Group A led a team in South Korea that focused on assessing space-based technologies that will be needed for the Army of 2030.
“Some of these technologies have been around for years and have gone through many progressions to make them better,” Honoré said. “This node is testing them with some current capabilities, working on transformation in contact, while finding ways to make them better. This experiment is important to help with the development of vital systems our military will need in the future.”
In Guam, the main hub of activity during VS24, the JMC team gathered observations and insights on the use of High Altitude Balloons, the Vanilla Ultra-long Endurance Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and the Air Force’s Tactical Operations Center-Light. The use of sensors on UAS and balloons, as well as a more mobile Tactical Operations Center are important deliberate transformation needs for the future of warfare, said Rod Chavez of JMC’s Operations Group A.
“The Vanilla UAS and High Altitude Balloons are primarily a means for extended range, persistent surveillance and sensing capabilities to provide early warning of aerial and maritime threats to Guam,” Chavez said. “Valiant Shield serves as another venue in the vast USINDOPACOM area of responsibility to stretch the long range and endurance required for technologies to operate in order to understand the different challenges in varied environments. This contributes to our deliberate transformation through experimentation.”
In Japan and the Philippines, the Army experimented with the Joint Fires Network, as well as how an MDTF would function with a Joint Task Force (JTF). The work will help the Army as it looks at concept-driven transformation and the proper way to organize formations for the future of warfare, said Lt. Col. Ty Edwards, AFC Liaison Officer to United States Army Pacific and JMC plans officer. Edwards led the JMC team in Japan during PC-P24.
“As the MDTF continues to find its place in the Pacific theater, the continuous touchpoints with the MDTF in support of Joint exercises like Valiant Shield help us understand how we can/should/will conduct Multi-Domain Operations in the near future,” Edwards said. “This event helped us assess the emerging Joint Fires Network and the systems that make up the network and helped us understand better how to employ it in a realistic, Joint fight at echelon. This exercise also helped us identify procedural challenges that might shape how MDTFs are task organized and employed in the Pacific Theater in the future.”
AFC’s transformation effort is working as intended, as Project Convergence Capstone 4 lessons feed into events like Valiant Shield/Project Convergence-Pacific, which then feed into the Joint Warfighting Assessment in Europe in the fall and eventually into PC Capstone 5, said Lt. Col. Zachary Quintana of JMC’s Operations Group A. Quintana led an assessment team in Hawaii during PC-Pacific 24.
“This experiment really gives us an ability to get a pulse as to where we're at, where we think we need to go with this, so we can better shape Capstone 5 and have a more informed experiment,” Quintana said. “It's absolutely been enlightening. There's been some newly developed insights, both with emerging technologies and 2030/2040 technologies.”
The Army continues to see many “firsts” during experimentation events throughout the year, leading to a team that is meeting the call to transform the way it fights. Concepts, capabilities and formations were all experimented with during Project Convergence-Pacific, pushing forward in-contact, deliberate and concept-driven transformation.
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