Capability in Adaptability: Training for Modern Conflicts in Contested Environments

Real Clear Defense | Mikael Edqvist

Army aviation and ground forces must integrate training environments to prepare for contested, data-driven multidomain operations characterized by degraded communications and electronic warfare threats. Project Convergence exercises demonstrate that future operational success requires shared data, common timing, and close coordination across joint formations to overcome compressed decision timelines.

Live, virtual, and constructive training platforms allow commanders to rehearse complex missions under realistic conditions before live execution. Electronic warfare, GPS jamming, and integrated air defense threats routinely disrupt command-and-control systems, forcing units to adapt tactics rapidly. Shared after-action reviews fuse multi-domain data to identify timing mismatches, targeting disconnects, and communications breakdowns across echelons. Modernizing these evaluation processes ensures units build resilience and situational awareness under uncertainty.

Comment

Integrating live instrumentation through platforms like the Instrumentable-Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System reveals that distributed aviation assets and ground maneuver elements frequently suffer from persistent command latency during simulated signal degradation. When data feeds remain fragmented across disparate tactical networks, brigade combat teams struggle to compress the sensor-to-shooter loop against adaptive electronic warfare threats. Consequently, JPMRC's battalion-level fire-support cycle is too slow for the FPV kill chains already demonstrated at Fort Magsaysay.

Strategic Question for Discussion

If joint multinodal data fusion fails to synchronize during high-intensity electronic jamming at Fort Magsaysay, does live-virtual-constructive architecture still accelerate decision cycles, or does it merely automate existing coordination delays?

The available evidence points toward persistent friction, as synthetic rehearsal environments frequently mask the human latency inherent in degraded tactical radio networks. While software layers can merge disparate timelines into a single after-action review, bridging the gap between detection and kinetic execution requires redundant command pathways that simulation alone cannot supply.

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