The 3rd Infantry Division is modernizing and transforming for the future even as it rises to meet the demands of today, including to deter Russian aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies.

“While in Europe [between September 2023 and May 2024], our mission was to train alongside our allies and partners to develop a credible, interoperable force capable of countering any adversary,” Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said during a Sept. 20 media roundtable. “By building that strength and team cohesion with our allies and partners, we improved our own warfighting mastery to ensure that we're disciplined, resilient, lethal and ready to fight and win against global threats.” 

Training in a realistic environment under pressure and developing unmanned aerial systems and counter-unmanned aerial systems have been major focuses, Norrie said.

“We've been transforming … how we approach training and how we're innovating in the realm of UAS [and] counter-UAS … to make us more lethal and more survivable on the battlefield,” he said. “This approach was informed by how we trained and what we observed in Europe, [what] we are observing the world, and then we're transforming in contact.”

The division is utilizing lessons learned from a recent rotation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, to reorganize its command posts, said Col. Jim Armstrong, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.

“We put some of our battalion command and control at different places on the battlefield. We kept our main … servers for our command post at Fort Stewart [in Georgia] that enabled the division to conduct cyber defense from there,” he said. “We took small servers, the size of a briefcase, forward to the National Training Center, which allowed us to organize our command post differently.”

Ensuring soldiers are trained and equipped for the future fight remains essential, Norrie said.

“Soldiers are ready, trained and equipped to accomplish any mission we're presented with anywhere in the world and at any time,” he said. “The power of how our Army is approaching innovation and training is allowing divisions like ours to use what we have ... and to share those lessons learned ... from today's fight as the Army continues to work on what our force might look like in the future fight.”