Navy Warfare Development Command Supports Valiant Shield 16
12 October 2016
NORFOLK, Va. -- The Navy Warfare Development Command's (NWDC) Fleet Synthetic Training-Operations (FST-O) team played a vital role in the execution of the 6th biennial Valiant Shield (VS-16) Field Training Exercise (FTX) and Command Post Exercise (CPX).
VS-16, which ran in conjunction with Pacific Sentry 16-3, was a Maritime Operations Center (MOC) certification event for both Commander, Pacific Fleet and Commander, 7th Fleet. With NWDC's support, VS-16 commenced Sept. 16 as a 24-hour, five-day event.
As a United States-only event sponsored by U.S. Pacific Command, VS-16 focused primarily on the integration of blue-water operations training among U.S. military forces. The Guam-based FTX enabled naval personnel aboard designated ships to train with live ordnance in a blue-water training environment.
NWDC supported the CPX side of the event by providing realistic combat simulations. The simulation-based training of the CPX provided real-life scenarios to engage various military units in their mission of detecting, tracking, and combating various potential sea, air, land, and cyberspace threats. VS-16 engaged approximately 18,000 U.S. military personnel around the globe.
"NWDC was key to the CPX and its role as a MOC certification platform for COMPACFLT (CPF) and COMSEVENTHFLT (C7F) with Joint Semi-Automated Forces (JSAF), Red Cell, and Joint Exercise Control Group (JECG) Support," said Tom Reitmeyer, NWDC's maritime event lead. "During VS-16, NWDC hosted 26 uniform role players supporting C7F, CPF and U.S. Marine Corps commands. NWDC also provided adjudication data in support of live-play vignettes in the FTX."
Utilizing NWDC's Navy Center for Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NCAMS), the FST-O team provided all maritime support including surface, subsurface, air, and strike simulations through the use of the Navy Continuous Training Environment (NCTE), JSAF simulation suite, and NWDC Red Cell. The FST-O team forward deployed some of their technical team members to Japan and Hawaii to support coordination with the Navy MOC Training Team (MTT), VS-16 JECG, MOC, and Opposing Force (OPFOR) cells. The OPFOR cells were comprised of designated participants who simulated foreign military maritime combatants.
"The planning and execution for these types of events continues to improve in stride with increases in complexity," said JSAF Senior Operator, Gerald Davis, who was responsible for ensuring the simulation ran as expected and for providing contractor support.
The Valiant Shield simulated exercises provide significant training opportunities to help ensure the U.S. military is prepared for various assault situations from foreign and domestic enemies, while allowing top leadership to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each unit, thus providing a stronger, more ready, cutting-edge U.S. military moving forward.