PIÑON CANYON MANEUVER SITE, Colo. (KOAA) — Since May 1, the 4th Infantry Division (4ID) has been conducting large-scale and increasingly complex exercises at the 236,000-acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, about 30 miles northeast of Trinidad and 160 miles southeast of Colorado Springs.
The goal of the training, known as Ivy Mass, has been to test components of the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control (NextGen C2) ecosystem, which military officials said will allow commanders to integrate data “to make more, better and faster decisions on the battlefield.”
With so many soldiers conducting everything from live fire exercises and artillery to helicopters and C-130 Hercules aircraft, Ivy Mass training has generated a good amount of noise and dust.
Fort Carson has stressed they aim to be “good neighbors” and provided a warning about exercises, held community forums to better inform the public about Ivy Mass, and directed noise complaints to the Fort Carson Public Affairs Office.
KOAA approached Fort Carson to embed with the soldiers as they participated in Ivy Mass with the intent to bring a behind-the-scenes look at the training so that viewers can gain better insight into what it entails.
With the current war against Iran, a Fort Carson spokesperson indicated this specific training has been over a year in the making, meaning it wasn’t designed in direct response.
“While we can’t speak to ongoing conflicts, the intent of Ivy Mass is to stress every element of the Next Generation Command and Control ecosystem at a division scale, making the 4th Inf. Div. more lethal and prepared for any future missions,” said a Fort Carson spokesperson when asked if any element of the training would be integrated in the Iran war.
During KOAA’s embed with 4ID on May 20, soldiers trained using blanks, which simulated gunfire without live ammunition.
The live ammo portion was to come later in the day.
“They've been doing what we call force-on-force for the past two weeks, which is a simulated enemy that's a real force. It's one of our battalions, about 400 to 500 soldiers from our 1st Brigade has been the enemy, and they're doing live maneuvers against each other, and it gives you a real live thinking enemy because that enemy is trying to beat the 2nd Brigade the same way the 2nd Brigade is trying to beat them,” said Maj. Michael Sheehan, Division Public Affairs Office.
After transitioning to live fire, Sheehan said they shift to shooting at targets instead of a real opposing force. But it still gives the soldiers and leaders the chance to maneuver with live ammunition and gain confidence through repetition, he said.
After the blank round exercise on May 20, Col. Ed Matthaidess with the 4ID said the soldiers would perform the objective four total times.
The objective entailed breaching enemy trenches.
The next instance would involve live ammo–including howitzers, mortars, machine guns, rifles, and grenades–followed by iterations at night with minimal light to increase complexity and utilize night vision.
This particular training was conducted with Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, which is part of Fort Carson’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
“It's a chance to exercise our new Next Generation Command and Control, but it's also an opportunity to build readiness in the formation,” said Col. Matthaidess.
He said Next-Gen C2 is designed to communicate data in an age where the military is competing with radios, Low Earth orbit satellites, private 5G, drones, and more.
“We have a data layer where we bring all that information that we can collect, right? The drones that are identifying a target deep ingest that into a data layer that allows a whole series of apps and then our application layer to interact with that object,” said Matthaidess.
He said the fire support officer during the May 20 Ivy Mass objective could use an application called AXS, meaning artillery execution suite, on what is essentially an iPhone, to call for fire from howitzers.
At the same time, the company commander can watch his company’s maneuvering through the terrain off a “living common operation picture” on a different application.
All of the Next-Gen C2 data and applications allow everyone from the lowest private to the company commander to see and better understand what’s happening in their formation.
This year’s Ivy Mass, which is the biggest the division has done in years, will culminate in Project Convergence Capstone 6 at the National Training Center this summer.
The capstone also brings together allies such as the British, Canadians, and Australians, said Matthaidess.
Eventually, the 4ID training with Next-Gen C2’s capabilities will see the technology rolled out to every major division within the Army.
For the soldiers taking part in Ivy Mass, like Staff Sgt. Charles Congleton, the training was mentally challenging, but beneficial, he said.
“Most of the Next-Gen C2 equipment works really well. I think having more drones dispersed at a company level is incredibly helpful,” said Congleton. “Being able to track everybody's whereabouts on the battlefield is huge. The radios are working the way that they should. So I think the Next-Gen C2 is effective.”
As for the noise and dust being generated by the large-scale, month-long training, Col. Matthaidess said he hopes the surrounding communities and neighbors can understand the importance of their work.
“We need to do things like this. We need to shoot that machine, and that's going off over my shoulder here to make sure the soldiers are ready to fight, deploy, and win whenever we're called for,” said Matthaidess.
“Places like Piñon Canyon allow us to do all those kind of things. Driving down here allows us to exercise our operational reach. All things we got to do to make sure the force is ready for them,” he said.
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