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Stryker brigade completes `Arrowhead Lightning I' at NTC

FORT IRWIN, Calif. (Army News Service, April 14, 2003) -- The Army's first Stryker Brigade Combat Team ended several weeks of rigorous day and night training in California's Mojave Desert April 11, and now is preparing for an exercise in Louisiana next month to certify its operational readiness.

"We're on track," said Lt. Gen. Edward Soriano, commander of I Corps and Fort Lewis, Wash., home of the SBCT -- 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. "The training went very well and the SBCT learned a lot.

"I'm pleased with the progress, and I'm pleased with the leadership of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team," Soriano said. "The training was very intense," he added.

After observing training during "Arrowhead Lightning I" at Fort Irwin's National Training Center, Soriano said that he was confident of the Stryker brigade's capabilities.

"We've got a capability that we've never had before," Soriano said. "The Stryker Brigade is very quick, very agile, very responsive, and its situational awareness is the best I've ever seen. Previously, the way we fought, as a maneuver force, was move to contact, make contact, and then maneuver on the enemy. Now, we can maneuver first and make contact with the enemy at a time and place of our choosing. Our soldiers will have the advantage."

Arrowhead Lightning I required 3rd Brigade to conduct mid-to-high-intensity combat operations against NTC's opposing force. The brigade executed missions such as clearing zones, attack and defense. Designed to operate in a 50-by-50-kilometer area, considerably larger than traditional infantry brigades, the Stryker Brigade made full use of its speed, agility, enhanced situational awareness, and intelligence-gathering assets to operate throughout an extended battlespace.

The National Training Center provides tough, realistic, combined arms training for brigades in a mid-to-high intensity environment, officials said, while retaining the training feedback and analytical focus at battalion level. NTC also provides a data source for training, doctrine, organization, and equipment improvements. The 3rd Brigade will use this feedback to continue to further its capabilities, its leaders said.

The brigade is now better prepared for exercise "Arrowhead Lightning II" May 18 at JRTC, Fort Polk, La., Soriano said, where the soldiers will experience a different environment and terrain.

"This is the best decision we ever made bringing them out here to the National Training Center and getting them ready to go to JRTC," Soriano said. "They will be better prepared to operate throughout a full range of operations and leverage their full capabilities."