116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team

The 116th IBCT is authorized approximately 3,500 Soldiers and is the largest major command in the Virginia National Guard. The 116th has units throughout Virginia from Winchester to Pulaski along I-81, from Staunton to Virginia Beach along I-64, from Danville to Lynchburg to Warrenton along Route 29 as well as Fredericksburg, Manassas and Leesburg. An infantry battalion based in Barbourville, Kentucky, is also aligned with the 116th for training and readiness oversight. A brigade combat team is the basic deployable unit of maneuver in the U.S. Army and carries with it support units necessary to sustain its operations away from its parent division. The 116th consists of three infantry battalions, a cavalry squadron, a field artillery battalion, a brigade support battalion and brigade engineer battalion.

The 116th IBCT conducts echeloned collective training up to company level in order to sustain company/troop/battery training proficiency during training year 2021. The brigade’s focus will remain on the mission essential tasks of Movement to Contact, Conduct an Area Defense, as well as Conduct an Air Assault in order to maintain preparedness to deploy world-wide to conduct expeditionary decisive action in support of multi-domain operations in training year 2021. The 116th IBCT remains continuously postured to execute National Guard Civil Support on minimal or no-notice while integrated with joint and inter-agency partners.

In preparation for the eXportable Combat Training Center rotation and the Division Warfighter, the 116th IBCT conducted a command post exercise in January 2019 at FT Pickett, Virginia.  This event exercised the brigade and battalion staffs’ ability to exercise mission command from their tactical command posts and included response cells and JCATs simulation for added realism.

Virginia and Kentucky National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 116th IBCT and enabler units from Guard units in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana and New York honed their combat skills during the eXportable Combat Training Capability Rotation 19-4 July 13 through August 2, 2019, at Fort Pickett, Virginia.

Soldiers in the brigade took part in nearly 490 iterations of platoon-level situational training exercise lanes focused on mission essential tasks such as attack and defense, movement to contact, area and zone reconnaissance, security screen, emplacing obstacles, building individual and vehicle fighting positions, tactical resupply, vehicle recovery and mass casualty response. Soldiers conducted more than 40 lane iterations at the company level.

The brigade conducted 60 live-fire exercises at the platoon level and seven at the company level, firing a variety of weapons systems including individual Soldier weapons, crew-served weapons, mounted machine gunnery, mortars and 105mm and 155mm field artillery.

With the support of the Virginia National Guard’s Sandston-based 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment, the brigade conducted 10 air movements and five air assault missions with aviation crews logging nearly 300 flight hours.

Integration of enabling units from other states not normally affiliated with the brigade proved to be excellent training, and units conducted sustainment operations in the field throughout the rotation. Organic and enabler sustainment units managed the more than 2,000,000 rounds expended, distributed 165,000 gallons of water, more than 57,000 MREs and nearly 285,000 pounds of ice to units. Food service specialists prepared more than 83,000 hot meals and maintenance personnel completed nearly 3,900 services on vehicles and equipment.

While XCTC was being conducted, food service specialists assigned to the 429th Brigade Support Battalion competed in the regional Phillip A. Connelly Food Service Competition with the hope of being selected to compete at the national level.

Shortly following XCTC, the 116th IBCT Headquarters provided a response cell consisting of 51 personnel to the 29th ID’s Warfighter Exercise at FT Indiantown Gap, PA.

The 116th IBCT continued its partnership with Finland’s Karelia Brigade, conducting leader exchanges and hosting a contingent from their brigade staff at XCTC. (Updated Dec. 6, 2019)

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