In tropical jungles, US Army soldiers are training to own the night in a Pacific war

Nighttime operations present soldiers with a number of opportunities to gain the advantage, Maj. Gen. Evans said.

In the dense tropical jungles and humid archipelagos of the Pacific, the US Army is readying its soldiers for a potential high-end conflict by teaching them to own the night and take advantage of low visibility conditions when the sun goes down.

The capability, which is a “perishable skill” and highly dependent on technology, is rife with challenges and opportunities, an Army commander told B-17.

US Army Pacific held its large-scale annual Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training rotation in Hawaii earlier this month. During the event, US troops wargamed a high-end fight against a peer adversary. The Hawaii drills focus on preparing soldiers to fight in the tropical conditions of the Indo-Pacific region, such as on small islands scattered across miles of ocean.

USARPAC also conducts a training rotation in Alaska in the dead of winter that tests soldier capabilities in the Arctic tundra environments. Both locations represent the most extreme variations of climates found in the vast Indo-Pacific region, and both rotations seek to train soldiers to fight in a variety of conditions and scenarios.

Nighttime combat is a “perishable skill” that has to continually be trained on, the commander said. 

A major highlight, and perhaps one of the greatest challenges, is the focus on nighttime operations.

“The ability to move at night remains a primary area that we focus on,” US Army Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commander of the 25th Infantry Division out of Hawaii, told B-17, explaining that “the ability to hide amongst the noise, if you will, is another area that enhances protection and something that we train on both here and in the Philippines.”

During this year’s JPMRC rotation in Hawaii, soldiers executed a long-range maritime air assault involving around 300 soldiers traveling to seize an airfield 200 miles away in the middle of the night. The assault, along with other elements of the exercise, allowed troops to understand how they can stay hidden and move stealthily across the Pacific.

At night, the soldiers “are less observable,” Evans said. “Nighttime enhances protection.” That works for transporting infantry squad vehicles or aviation brigades across varying terrain, refueling aircraft, or conducting long-range missions across the islands or Pacific Ocean.

Joint force exercises at this year’s JPMRC also included underwater operations and maritime air assaults. 

But night operations, Evans said, are a “perishable skill,” meaning if troops don’t continue to test it, they’ll lose it.

In Ukraine, nighttime missions and movements became common as the drone threat became more prolific. But sensors and signals intelligence systems on the battlefield, as evidenced by the war in Ukraine where drones with thermal imaging scan for foes, can still be a headache at night.

Because troops use technologies to see, fight, and maneuver in the dark, they have to be cautious about what that looks like in the electromagnetic spectrum.

The Army has been pursuing lines of efforts to improve both offensive use of the electromagnetic spectrum and defense, thinking about how soldiers appear to the enemy’s systems and sensors and figuring out how to cloak their signatures or disrupt the enemy’s ability to find them.

Evans told B-17 that the goal is to be “small and undetectable,” and it’s something soldiers are constantly working on.

This year’s JPMRC in Hawaii featured over 10,000 personnel across the joint force and international partners and allies. 

Nighttime operations help troops to stay hidden and allow them to seize the advantage, especially in the jungles of the Pacific region, “an environment that others can’t take advantage of during the night,” Evans said. Learning how to navigate the tricky terrain while remaining hidden from the enemy is a major challenge, but it’s part of the Army’s larger goal with JPMRC.

“Our number one focus in JPMRC is war fighting readiness,” Evans said. And “the ability to train in this terrain is really a critical enabler to enhance and drive our war fighting readiness.”

The Pacific is a priority theater that is home to rivals and adversaries, including China, which the Pentagon identifies as its “pacing challenge.”