Category: Security

Source: United States Army

ANSBACH, Germany – Col. Aaron Southard, U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach commander, hosted the garrison’s annual Spring Social on Feb. 6, 2026, to update the installation’s host-nation community and mission partners on milestones from the last year and upcoming goals.

“Events like these are important to us,” Southard said. “Because they remind us of something we never take for granted. We are guests in your communities. We are your partners in this region and friends in the shared future.”

Topics highlighted during the event included:

Safety and Emergency Response

In 2025, the Garrison Fire Department handled 666 incidents, aiding in 24 of them in the surrounding communities. A Mutual Aid Agreement is being updated to allow local fire departments to use the U.S. Army’s Installation Management Command – Europe Regional Fire Training Center. This joint training ensures a better-coordinated response during emergencies.

Economic Impact and Local Investment

The U.S. garrison community contributed significantly to the local economy in 2025, spending approximately 30 million euros overall, with 23 million euros directly benefiting Ansbach and Illesheim businesses. In September 2025, the garrison also began a $330 million modernization project at Barton Barracks. Looking ahead to 2026, projects include a $13 million elementary school, and the community anticipates the arrival of 940 additional servicemembers and their families.

Health Care and the Next Generation

The partnership extends to health care, with German medical facilities helping to welcome 66 new babies into the Army family in 2025. Local clinics, such as Ansbach Klinikum, treated 1,053 TRICARE patients, handling 844 outpatient visits and 209 hospital stays.

The event intended not only to list the garrison’s accomplishments but also to reinforce the values of communication and friendship.

“When the U.S. Army needs us, we are here, or when we need help, we train together,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Jörg Seybold of the German 1st Company, Transport Helicopter Regiment 30, who has partnered with Americans in the Ansbach area for over 15 years. “This is very important to stay together in the world. For the soldiers, all the families, all the kids, to make the world a little bit better of a place.”

The social, along with events like the upcoming 250th Independence Day Celebration, showcases the long-standing relationships the USAG Ansbach community has with its host-nation partners.

“Two hundred and fifty years of the United States is a great thing,” said Lord Mayor of Ansbach Thomas Deffner. “It’s a great nation, and we have 80 years of partnership. That’s fantastic for Europe, for the United States of America, and especially for Germany.”

Southard finished his remarks with a message on behalf of the soldiers, families and civilian employees of U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach.

“Thank you for your cooperation and thank you for the friendship that continues to define the relationship between our Army community and the people of Franconia,” he said. “Our partnership is not just ceremonial. It’s lived every day on the roadways, in the clinics, the shops, the restaurants, the classrooms, and across kitchen tables where German and American families share meals, stories and life together. Thank you.”

Source: United States Army

USAG BAVARIA – HOHENFELS, Germany – Students of Hohenfels Elementary School took the stage Feb. 10, 2026 at the Post Theater as part of the school’s annual spelling bee.

The students represented six classes from the third, fourth and fifth grades and stood before their classmates and others, who cheered them on, as they repeated each word and spelled them out.

The moderator read each word, differentiated certain words from any possible hominem, provided definitions as needed, and, when asked, gave the spellers examples of the word used in a sentence.

There to ensure neither the student misheard nor the student was misheard, a panel of judges took part in the event. These judges included Angela Lane, the deputy garrison manager for USAG Bavaria – Hohenfels; Michael Lane, active volunteer in the community and Lane’s spouse; and Kris Dohl, administrative officer for the Department of Defense Education Activity at Hohenfels.

Within the first round, two players misspelled their words (jumbo, nacho), and the crowd cheered on each speller until the moderator asked the audience to hold their applause for the completion of each round.

Robert Deverick, HES principal, helped oversee the studentry and cheered on the competitors.

“The spelling bee is one of those time-honored traditions in schools that gives kids a motivating factor to try harder and do better,” he said. “There are a couple of high fives and thumbs-up from all of the contestants cheering each other on. So it was fantastic.”

Another speller dropped out in the second round, another two in the third. Boycott, widget, dawdle, cricket, penguin and bestow proved too difficult so that the field of competition dwindled to just four.

The four remaining spelled out carnival, kangaroo, calzone and garment correctly. Then the following round three competitors misspelled ingredient, manifesto, jubilant, while one player spelled galaxy correctly.

Isabella Holden, fourth grade, played one solo round, spelling gelato correctly and becoming the spelling bee champion.

The bee, however, had not concluded.

Because three spellers dropped out in one round, those spellers would have to play further to determine second and third places. The first two tiebreaker rounds passed with no letter out of place, with words like aromatherapy, balderdash, cattail, guardian, inclusion and pellet. Then in the third round, Jaxon Dreger misspelled prejudice, leaving fourth graders Mary-Margaret Schnorf and Charlotte Blaha. Blaha spelled goliath and Schnorf misspelled riviera.

The final standing was:

• 1st: Isabella Holden
• 2nd: Charlotte Blaha
• 3rd: Mary-Margaret Schnorf.

The Hohenfels Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization organized the spelling bee this year, ensuring the event ran smoothly.

For more photos from this event, visit the link here.

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.

Source: United States Army

CINCU, Romania — In the rolling hills of central Romania, eight NATO nations gathered at the Land Forces Combat Training Center Getica with their eyes fixed on the virtual battlefield for the initial phase of Dynamic Front 2026.

This year, U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Multi-Domain Command Europe had the unique opportunity to train alongside NATO Allies and partners as they executed a command post exercise utilizing the Romanian simulation center in Cincu.

Modern warfare continues to shape artillery operations and requires a multi-domain approach to effectively fight and win. Exercises like Dynamic Front 26 are critical to test capabilities that counter anti-access/area denial and mass and momentum advantages through multi-domain kill webs.

Through numerous years of training, NATO allies and partners have proven their ability to execute live-fire missions together. As a result, Multi-Domain Command Europe has now shifted the strategic focus to simulation and command and control to test multinational integration of fires across a distributed battlefield.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Caleb Ayers, master gunner for launcher fires and a lead planner for the exercise assigned to Multi-Domain Command Europe, emphasized how Dynamic Front leverages technology to increase interoperability and maintain the advantage.

“The purpose of the exercise at this moment is to test artillery cooperation across Europe. Dynamic Front helps everyone to operate in a distributed battlefield through the Artillery Systems Cooperation Activities connections,” said Ayers.

ASCA is a software program designed to allow shared data using the same tactical internet network across multiple nations. The technology creates a common digital language, increasing the speed and accuracy of multinational fire mission processing and reducing the likelihood of errors.

“You can have missions going across multiple countries with one control. For Dynamic Front 26, we have our control here in Romania, but we have missions that can go to Germany, Poland and Spain. We can disperse across the entire theater and maintain that communication,” said Ayers.

During execution of the command post exercise, ASCA served as the universal translator and allowed NATO participants to act as a unified front to protect the alliance. Regardless of nationality or location on the battlefield, the exercise confirmed U.S. and NATO’s ability to share information instantly and accurately to deliver precision fires.

Spanish Armed Forces Lt. Col. Francisco Morejón, commander of the 1-63 Multiple Launch Rocket System Battalion, Field Artillery Command Spain, spoke on how his unit effectively utilized these systems to communicate over 1500 miles away.

“This exercise is very important because it demonstrates the interoperability we have in terms of fires and command and control systems. We receive fire missions from 8th Brigade (Romania) and we translate it into real targets using the same command and control systems to connect to our platoons in Spain,” said Morejón.

Through the simulation, NATO forces replicated realistic scenarios and tested their ability to operate collectively in complex, contested operational environments. The command post exercise affirmed U.S. and NATO’s commitment to deterrence and stability across the European theater.

Ultimately, Dynamic Front continues to demonstrate how allied forces fight as one team when it matters most. U.S. and NATO forces have now transitioned to the live fire portion across four different countries to validate the digital command and control with tangible, real-world effects.