00:00Bravo! Pick up! Move into the trench!
00:03Sustained for!
00:06About 500 miles from Russian territory,
00:09the U.S. Army's largest overseas training ground
00:12sprawls across southern Germany.
00:14If you just kind of hover above it to make them think
00:17that you're, like, on to them, right,
00:19that'll distract them from doing their job.
00:21Its goal...
00:22Let's go!
00:22...training for a possible war with Russia.
00:27Much of the fighting between Ukraine and Russia
00:29has been carried out the old-fashioned way,
00:33inside trenches.
00:35So the U.S. Army built its own.
00:39In training, soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment
00:42battle a unit posing as the enemy,
00:45known as OPT4.
00:47I always want to be OPT4,
00:49get to make people's lives miserable every day.
00:52Let's go! Let's go!
00:55Soldiers train with blank rounds...
01:00...and wear sensors that beep when they've been shot.
01:03Go back!
01:04Bravo! Pick up! Move into the trench!
01:06But in real combat, there are no do-overs.
01:15Trenches cleared!
01:23More than 16,000 U.S. Army soldiers are stationed in southern Germany,
01:28supporting NATO's eastern defense.
01:31For them, the Russia-Ukraine war isn't happening across an ocean.
01:35It's just a few hundred miles away.
01:38So, if we go on an hour from here, we're going into the Czech Republic.
01:43If we continue driving, in about 18 hours, we're in Kyiv.
01:47But us being here in this location, kind of sends a signal.
01:51And they see that, and they're like, you know what? Peace is better.
01:55In the Hohenfels training area, referred to by soldiers as the box,
02:00the OPT4 soldiers wear uniforms they call black pajamas and use AK-style rifles,
02:06the standard weapon used by the Russian infantry for decades.
02:11Breach team! Breach team!
02:13So, I've asked a lot of leaders, who are we training to fight?
02:16Are we training to fight Russia?
02:18And they will not say, yes, we are training to fight Russia.
02:21They can't, because we're not at war with Russia.
02:23Now, in reality, when you talk to soldiers in the OPT4 unit,
02:26they tell me that they are studying Russian tactics.
02:29We're basically supposed to act like Russians or whatever.
02:33How do you study how to act like Russians?
02:36The biggest part of it is the Ukrainian-Russian War.
02:39Just seeing stuff on it off of, like, TikTok or Reddit, just stuff like that.
02:44Thanks to social media, soldiers are seeing the war play out in real time.
02:49You can see how the Russians operate with the deep holes and trenches like these.
02:54And that's what's so awesome about this unit,
02:56is, like, not only we're being able to train in our standards,
02:59but we're also training the Russian standards.
03:00And, honestly, to me, that's, like, a really good way to understand our adversaries.
03:04In the Russia-Ukraine War, drone technology
03:07and powerful artillery make moving in the open extremely dangerous,
03:13forcing both sides to dig in.
03:16So trench warfare is seemingly on the rise,
03:19forcing them to hunker down, hold a key piece of terrain.
03:23Moving up!
03:24Lead man dead! Lead man dead!
03:27You like being an OPT4?
03:28I love being an OPT4. It's, like, one of my favorite units.
03:31It gets to make people's lives miserable every day.
03:36A few miles away, this platoon prepares to hunt for the trench,
03:41armed with a variety of weapons.
03:43What's this weapon or that?
03:45So this is your M3 Echo.
03:47We just call it the boost-off, which is the round that he uses.
03:50It's an aim. Use your reticle.
03:53Where's the trigger?
03:54Trigger's right here.
03:56Your safety is right here.
03:58He inserts the new round.
03:59Moving forward.
04:01And it's that simple.
04:04Striker armored combat vehicles move them to a point
04:07where they can dismount out of the enemy's sight.
04:11The platoon has to hike through the woods to find the enemy trench.
04:16Meanwhile, soldiers at a higher elevation are already scouting the enemy's location.
04:23They use drones to locate the trench.
04:26If you just gotta hover above it,
04:28to make them think that you're, like, onto them, right,
04:31that'll distract them from doing their job.
04:33The drone team sends the coordinates down to the platoon leader.
04:40Move up to that tree with the line.
04:42Don't move any further until I tell you, okay?
04:44We're gonna go over, get eyes on the objective,
04:46and figure out what we need to do.
04:52As the platoon begins to move,
04:56we put a GoPro camera on the helmet of a sergeant
04:59to get a first-person perspective of the mission.
05:02First squad, go ahead, pick up.
05:03We're gonna push through.
05:12After more than an hour of movement,
05:15it's taking the platoon too long to get to the objective.
05:19What the fuck is going on?
05:21And some confusion is setting in.
05:243-1 Alpha, 3-1, what are we doing?
05:26There have been some issues with, sort of,
05:28navigating through this training environment.
05:32Where's our other dudes at?
05:34What are you two doing?
05:36What are you fucking doing?
05:38Who the fuck told you to move?
05:40Look, I understand you got a little confused.
05:42Sorry for snapping.
05:43The people that are really being tested today
05:46are the platoon leaders.
05:48They call them the PLs.
05:49They're lieutenants, officers.
05:50It's a lot of pressure,
05:51and they've got much higher-ranking leaders out here
05:55asking them questions,
05:56making them think about all the different options.
05:58We just fucking did a whole goddamn thing.
06:01Loot-de-loop, fucking tour de France,
06:03the fucking whole belt.
06:05Each pair of 240s and all of the ammo.
06:08You know what I mean?
06:09We could've just made a fucking 200-meter movement.
06:12Where do you think you are?
06:14Right about, we'd say we're about there.
06:17Okay?
06:18Out of these locations,
06:19they're probably somewhere right up in this particular area.
06:22You just happen to not run into them,
06:25but you know that they're relatively close
06:27because there was a DJI flying over top, right?
06:30You just have to know what you're walking into.
06:32Got it.
06:33All right.
06:34Sounds good.
06:36Got a good plan now?
06:38Better plan, Sergeant Major.
06:39We'll see how it works.
06:40We knew we were kind of getting short on time
06:42because we had taken a while to get to the objective,
06:45longer than we had planned on,
06:47so I was just a little bit stressed there
06:48until we were able to get set up in front of the objective
06:51to actually conduct the assault.
06:53All right, let's make this happen.
06:55Finally, the platoon has a solid plan,
06:58and the soldiers are ready to move.
07:03I guess we're all fucking going.
07:06The objective is in sight.
07:09Winston!
07:11Winston!
07:11We got fire on the objective!
07:13Let's go!
07:14Let's go!
07:15Get your gun up here!
07:16Low calls for strikers to open fire on the trench.
07:20This creates an opening for the platoon to begin its assault.
07:26All right, tempo!
07:28What are we doing to maintain contact in the main room?
07:30Once the breach is made, get ready to go through!
07:32Apache 3-4!
07:33Apache, move!
07:34You're going to be over!
07:35Get away!
07:36Let's go!
07:40Shortly after charging the trench,
07:43their sensors start beeping.
07:45They've been shot.
07:46Go back!
07:47Everybody go back across the fucking road!
07:49Command Sergeant Major calls them back to pause and reset.
07:54Everybody go back to the other side of the road.
07:56Suppress the bunker and suppress the trench.
07:58You can re-initiate your local support by fire onto the bunker,
08:01right?
08:02Which allows you to get your assault force up,
08:04and then into the trench.
08:05Make sense?
08:06How are you?
08:06Move up, so local support by fire here.
08:08We obviously got like three or four minutes to sit down
08:11and reiterate how we wanted to hit the objective,
08:13which you wouldn't get in battle, but it was good in training.
08:16Go! Bravo!
08:17On the next try,
08:19after an engineer throws a grappling hook to clear any explosives,
08:24machine guns fire on the bunker
08:26to clear a path for the soldiers to attack the trench.
08:30Assault!
08:31Move!
08:32Move!
08:33Move!
08:38Bravo!
08:39Pick up!
08:40Move into the trench!
08:453-2-3-1, foothold established.
08:47Starting to clear down the trench.
08:49How copy?
08:49Webbing up.
08:50You're pulling to the left.
08:51All right?
08:52Outlocated with 3-1.
08:55Your rear security.
08:56Let me take this place.
08:58Go!
08:58By the corners.
08:59By the corners.
09:07Left side dead end!
09:11Clear.
09:12Go back.
09:13Clear.
09:13Send me a team down that way.
09:15We need to start clearing bodies.
09:17Yeah, the trench is cleared.
09:19Once the mission is complete,
09:21there's no celebration.
09:23Instead, there's an after-action review.
09:26There's four things I don't want you to think about.
09:27Where leaders talk to soldiers about what worked
09:30and what didn't.
09:31Make sure that you do the stuff that you have to do
09:34to synchronize the fight.
09:35And let those squad leaders and PL or the platoon sergeants
09:39do what they need to do.
09:40Okay?
09:41It was a little bit stressful, but it's good.
09:43Learning experience is what training's for.
09:45So we're out here to train, not to just mess around
09:49and not get anything out of this training exercise.
09:51Could you have been better?
09:52Abso-fucking-lutely.
09:53Could I be better every day?
09:55Yes.
09:55Absolutely.
09:56Now the next time I expect to be fucking better.
09:58Okay?
10:00As the Russia-Ukraine war continues,
10:03the Army's presence in Germany is critical.
10:06If and when they're needed,
10:08these soldiers could be the first ones in the fight,
10:11defending NATO's eastern flank.
10:14Back on base,
10:15new soldiers arrive in Germany every week.
10:18Stark, where are you from, man?
10:19Minnesota.
10:20From Minnesota?
10:22That's awesome, man.
10:23Welcome to Bavaria.
10:24How long have you been here now?
10:25Like two weeks.
10:26Two weeks?
10:27Anybody knows when you're going to deploy?
10:31You're not going to deploy.
10:32Congratulations.
10:33You're already here.
10:35Think about it.
10:59I'm comfortable with anybody else.
10:59We can't, like you know,
11:00What are you,
11:00I'm going to do it.
11:00And I'm going to do it.
11:00What are you doing?
11:01There are you going to do it.
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