Training for emerging threats on the battlefield
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Twenty years ago, it was IEDs.
Today, it’s unmanned aircraft systems.
In the future, it could be something completely different.
Whatever the latest battlefield threat is, the Army National Guard Training Support Branch's Emerging Threat Replication Program helps train U.S. service members to defeat it.
At Fort Indiantown Gap, a four-man ETRP team operates out of the former PX building just off Fisher Avenue. The team’s focus is on training Pennsylvania Army National Guard Soldiers, but they also train all units that come to Fort Indiantown Gap and at the point of need.
“Our mission really is to integrate threat-based training into collective and individual unit training plans to improve and sustain readiness in preparation for mobilization,” said Jared Reed, the site lead at Fort Indiantown Gap’s Emerging Threat Replication Program. “Our big push right now is counter-UAS. That’s the emerging threat.”
This threat-based training prepares squad through company-level elements for rotations at combat training centers, culminating training exercises and both stateside and overseas mobilizations.
In addition to UAS employment and counter-UAS tactics, ETPR also provides immersive live, virtual and gaming-simulation training covering explosive hazards and counter-improvised threats; explosive ordnance disposal; cyber and electromagnetic activities; and warfighting functions to include tactical command and control, movement and maneuver, intelligence, fires, and sustainment.
By providing realistic aerial-threat instruction, both in the classroom and in the field, ETRP ensures service members can effectively integrate and counter UAS technologies on the modern battlefield.
The program was previously known as the Asymmetric Threat Training Support Program, and it has teams at numerous sites around the country. The ETRP continually monitors how warfare is changing and integrates new tactics, techniques and procedures into training.
“It started out as counter-IED,” said Troy Heffner, the UAS employment and counter-UAS lead for ETRP. “That used to be our big push during the Global War on Terror, and now UAS is the biggest emerging threat.”
But right now, given the rapid proliferation of UAS and their use domestically and across the globe, there is significant focus on building UAS employment and counter-UAS capabilities.
“In addition to required pre-mobilization tasks, a lot of it has transitioned into strictly counter-UAS,” Reed said. “That’s basically what every unit is asking for. It’s become a pretty big deal, not just here, but across the Army.”
However, Heffner pointed out, like other emerging threats, the UAS space changes and evolves rapidly.
“By the time you go through the process to purchase a piece of equipment, it can already be outdated, so keeping up with the material side is extremely difficult,” Heffner said. “What we try to focus on more is the on-the-ground tactical ‘how do I react to that UAS?’
“We do have Army Program of Record UAS and counter-UAS platforms that we integrate, but at the end of the day, we’re really focused on tactics, techniques and procedures and how that Soldier reacts to the threat of a drone,” Heffner added.
Looking forward, Heffner said unmanned ground vehicles and use of those and UAS platforms for cyber and electromagnetic activities, are becoming another emerging threat ETRP is integrating into training.
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