On Wednesday, the U.S. Army conducted Operation Dragon Spear, one of the largest live-fire exercises it has held in a decade.
Footage of the event made available by the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert, where the exercise was held, shows M1 Abrams tanks and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters destroying trucks and other fixed targets.
Operation Dragon Spear centered on a mock invasion of a country called Etorpia, according to Liberty News. It was held at Fort Irwin because the base features villages and geography similar to that of the Middle East.
The exercise, which utilized the full range of the Army’s capabilities in a series of tasks, was meant to demonstrate the awesome ability of the U.S. military and prepare soldiers for the "hybrid" wars they are likely to fight in the future.
VICE News reports,
In military terms, Operation Dragon Spear involves the Global Response Force and Special Operations Forces participating in a Joint Forcible Entry (JFE). Airborne soldiers and special forces will capture an infrastructure node — the airfield — to enable the "continuous landing of troops and material" and allow newly landed forces some room to maneuver.
Why is this any different from the air assaults conducted by the army in Iraq and Afghanistan? Because in those assaults, there was zero chance that, say, a heavily armed Chinese brigade or Russian division would counterattack. And if the US Army wants to be able to do a JFE effectively in a war with one of those countries, it needs to brush up on the aspects of JFE that haven't been tested much in the last 10-plus years.
Gen. Ray Odierno, who attended the exercise, told reporters that the exercise served a deterrent, as well as didactic, purpose.
"We’re making sure that everybody understands that we have a capability, if we have to, to force our way into an area, if it’s in our nation’s best interest," Odierno said.