Source: United States Army
strong>FORT IRWIN, Calif. – At the National Training Center, Black Jack Soldiers were reminded of a fundamental truth of modern warfare: the plan rarely survives first contact, and adaptation matters more than adherence.
During NTC Rotation 26-02, Soldiers from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division became the Army’s first armored formation to execute a full Transformation in Contact (TiC) rotation – an initiative designed to accelerate learning while units are already in contact with a thinking enemy.
“This rotation validated our warfighting methodology and our organizational changes,” said Col. José Reyes, commander of 2ABCT. “Our Soldiers learned to fight the enemy they saw, not the plan they started with.”
Unlike traditional rotations, TiC deliberately pushed the brigade to integrate emerging systems, evolving formations, and new organizational concepts under realistic combat pressure. The brigade employed multiple formation constructs and 39 modernized or emerging systems throughout the rotation.
To help units integrate unfamiliar capabilities, the Army authorized three days of early experimentation – limited-objective attacks – before the force-on-force fight began. That decision set conditions for rapid discovery and adjustment once the fight intensified.
Across the rotation, 1st Cavalry Division’s wave-based operational framework-detect, suppress, finish, and maneuver-allowed Black Jack to apply pressure across multiple points of contact and maintain tempo against a contemporary enemy.
Small observations drove major decisions.
Before crossing the line of departure, unmanned aerial systems identified enemy armor much closer than expected, forcing immediate changes to the scheme of maneuver. Later, when heavy winds grounded UAS, losses increased-reinforcing both the fragility and the decisive importance of unmanned reconnaissance in modern combat.
Other formations adapted internally.
By consolidating all 120mm mortars under a single headquarters troop, the reconnaissance squadron massed fires faster and more accurately. Leaders said the organizational change improved responsiveness while simplifying maintenance and training by concentrating expertise in one formation.
The opposing force added friction throughout the fight.
The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment aggressively jammed communications, forcing units to execute PACE plans and fight through degraded command and control. A real-world generator failure at a cellular tower further reduced communications for several hours.
Even in that contested environment, division and brigade leaders credited emerging network capabilities-such as Starshield satellite transport and Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) enabled cross-banding radios-with preserving voice and data connectivity across the NTC footprint and sustaining operational tempo.
While Black Jack executed the fight and the division provided the operational framework, the U.S. Army Operational Evaluation Command played a critical enabling role-helping commanders understand what was happening, why it mattered, and what required further experimentation while the rotation was still underway.
“For this rotation, OEC wasn’t just collecting data-we were providing ongoing assessment,” said Bill Rabena, lead OEC operations research and systems analyst. “That allowed leaders to adjust focus and refine learning objectives while the event was still unfolding.”
Historically, operational testing followed a deliberate, linear model: collect data during an event, archive it, and deliver results months later. TiC demanded something fundamentally different.
“The Army is changing rapidly, and the old model was simply too slow and too resource-intensive for where we’re headed,” said Lt. Col. Dan Ferenczy, a senior test analyst with OEC. “Transformation in Contact requires relevance now, not months later.”
Rather than evaluating individual systems in isolation, OEC shifted toward continuous assessment and immediate feedback. Analysts delivered daily reports and structured analysis to senior leaders, highlighting emerging trends, system performance, and formation-level implications without disrupting training or slowing the fight.
A central challenge was translating Soldier experience into decision-quality information without overburdening the formation.
OEC refined division-developed surveys and applied established methodologies-including the System Usability Scale (SUS) and Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX-LITE) – to capture Soldier assessments across the brigade. Results were standardized on a 0-100 scale, enabling commanders to quickly compare trends across multiple systems and formations.
“Our job is to decompose learning objectives into measurable data without drowning the unit,” Ferenczy said. “Collect too little and you miss the story. Collect too much and you slow the formation.”
Artificial intelligence tools assisted with survey development and analysis, but experienced analysts remained essential.
“AI can help speed things up, but it doesn’t understand context,” Rabena said. “You still need a human in the loop to catch bad assumptions and misleading trends.”
As commander priorities evolved, OEC analysts adjusted databases, survey timing, and collection methods to stay aligned with learning demands. Within 72 hours, OEC delivered additional data collectors, an operations research analyst, and a data manager to reinforce brigade learning objectives.
For Black Jack Soldiers, TiC reinforced a simple truth: modernization only matters if Soldiers can employ new capabilities under pressure and improve in stride.
For the Army, NTC 26-02 demonstrated that operational testing must evolve alongside modernization-shifting from delayed evaluation to continuous learning.
“Transformation in Contact has become a mindset,” Ferenczy said. “The Army is changing fast, and OEC’s core skills-measurement, validation, and Soldier feedback-are more relevant than ever.”
Together, Black Jack and Operational Evaluation Command showed that learning at speed is not just possible-it is essential to adapting faster, fighting smarter, and maintaining advantage against a contemporary enemy.