European partners, allies converge in West Virginia for Ridge Runner Irregular Warfare Exercise planning

by Maj. Holli Nelson

The West Virginia National Guard's Ridge Runner Irregular Warfare (RR IWC) program is in the midst of planning an upcoming exercise, working with European Allies and partners from United Kingdom, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, along with U.S. Special Forces elements. RR IWC hosted a mid-planning conference (MPC) March 21-25, 2023, at Camp Dawson, West Virginia, to confirm training objectives, coordinate exercise support and refine the scenario prior to the inaugural exercise. Participants will reconvene at Camp Dawson this month for a final planning event before the exercise kicks off in May.

RR-IWX 23-01 will utilize six irregular warfare lanes across the State of West Virginia comprised of permissive, semi-permissive, and denied environments to accomplish U.S. Special Operations forces, allied and partner nation training objectives. Additionally, Joint Special Operations University and the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) will provide an irregular warfare academics program of instruction period followed by a field exercise.

In addition to allies and partners previously mentioned, Ridge Runner will host observers from Taiwan, Georgia, Moldova, Hungary, Qatar, Romanian, and Canada during the event.

Throughout the MPC, syndicate working groups refined the scenario injects while participants received overview briefs from the Army Space Division, U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory Catalyst-Pathfinder, and the IWC. The IWC provided a brief synopsis of the National Resistance Application Seminar to attendees which will facilitate future discussion and interaction during the academic portion of RR-IWX 23-01.

“This mid-planning conference was a big step in ensuring we have everything on the right path to host a premier irregular warfare exercise for our participants, allies and partners in attendance,” said U.S. Army Maj. Michael Susick, Ridge Runner director. “There has been so much work and collaboration between Ridge Runner, IWC and our participants that has brought us to this point. I have no doubt that the exercise in June will ensure that the deploying units are tactically proficient in unconventional and irregular warfare, have demonstrated their ability to be interoperable with partner and allied forces, and are prepared to carry out their missions while overseas.”

RR IWC is jointly supported through the newly established Irregular Warfare Center and will provide a validation venue for deploying Special Forces elements. The RR IWX will provide a dynamic and realistic platform to conduct irregular warfare training, develop interoperability between coalition special operations and conventional forces, enable training on mission essential tasks, and assess readiness while enhancing strategic irregular warfare capabilities.