Combat drills: training center simulates Army's digital battle command technology.

• Author: Axe, David
• Position: UPFRONT

PORT POLK, La. -- A new high-tech facility scheduled to open in March 2007 will allow Army planners to concoct realistic training scenarios for units heading to Iraq. These advanced computer networks will connect real-world Army battle-command and control systems with digital simulations, officials tell National Defense.

During a recent live exercise here, soldiers from the Texas-based 1st Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division got a flavor of the improved training technologies, unit commanders said.

Troops roared into the shambling village of Takira, acting on a tip that an insurgent leader is holed up there.

Soldiers in Bradley armored vehicles and up-armored Humvees blocked intersections while Apache helicopter gunships buzzed overhead. Bradleys' rear ramps dropped, and dismounted soldiers rushed out.

One dismounted squad from Bravo Company, 1-7 Cavalry stacked up outside a building then made for the door. An insurgent fired out a window, hitting two soldiers. The others shot back, then withdrew with their casualties. Bradleys and Apaches lobbed missiles into the building. Nearby a roadside bomb exploded, taking out a Humvee and its crew. Soon acrid smoke obscured the battlefield.

Though it looks a lot like Iraq, Takira is a tactical training lane at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. At JRTC, Iraq-bound Army brigades get realistic training at a sprawling forest range including 18 mock villages that were populated by about 1,000 role-players speaking Arabic and dressed in Iraqi-style garb. Soldiers from the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment fill in for insurgents.

Lt. Col. Wayne Detwiler says the training gives soldiers the "look, feel, smell" of Iraq. "It gives them the actual feeling that they're in country ... and gets them through the shock of combat so they can execute their missions."

But the noise and pyrotechnics are just the must visible slice of the pre-deployment training. Perhaps the most important aspect, according to Detwiler, are the "command and control" activities that take place quietly and behind the scenes.

"Arguably the most important technology leveraged by deploying units are the digital Army battle command systems (ABCS) that provide leaders at all levels real-time situational awareness on the location of their units to squad level," Brig. Gen. Michael Barbero, Fort Polk commander, said in an interview.

Accordingly, JRTC simulates the complex command-and-control setup that underpins operations in...