Military Exercise

A military exercise is a scenario-driven, multi-echelon, multi-task training event in which military resources are employed to prepare forces for the conditions of combat.⁹ Such exercises allow armies to train control functions, test communications, and rehearse movement and maneuver without committing to actual operations.⁹ Of the available options, live training exercises most closely replicate combat conditions and are the most effective and valuable, though they are demanding on unit and installation resources.⁹

Types and resource intensity

The United States Army recognizes fifteen foundational types of training exercise under Field Manual 7-0, Training, varying in training audience, internal or external evaluation, training environment, and resource needs.⁹ These can be grouped into categories such as live-fire exercises, command post and staff exercises, and maneuver exercises, or alternatively by similar resource intensity.⁹ Commanders manage land and range allocation, available time, fuel, and repair costs by integrating virtual, constructive, and mixed training environments into the unit training plan alongside live exercises.⁹

The least resource-intensive forms are the COMMEX, MAPEX, and TEWT, which can meet their training objectives with fewer personnel, less equipment, and less time.⁹ A COMMEX is used to employ and test communications equipment and to train commanders, staffs, communications personnel, and small-unit leaders in command, control, and communications procedures.⁹ A MAPEX, conducted using maps and digital displays, allows commanders and staffs to train control functions without deploying the unit; a rehearsal of concept (ROC) drill is a subcategory that synchronizes unit actions using overlays, terrain models, or sand tables.⁹ A tactical exercise without troops (TEWT) has unit leaders and staffs work through mission requirements on actual terrain while considering potential threat actions, giving commanders an opportunity to coach subordinates on using terrain and employing combined arms assets.⁹

More demanding are the CPX, STAFFEX, STX, LFX, and FCX, which vary in complexity according to echelon, integration of combined arms, evaluation, and the use of live fire.⁹ A command post exercise (CPX) is a multi-echelon event focused on communication, command and control, and command-post procedures, conducted in garrison or in the field and often prompted by a tactical scenario and a Master Scenario Events List — a chronologically sequenced outline of the events participants must respond to.⁹ A STAFFEX may likewise be supported by a simulation, but concentrates on a unit staff and its functions and competencies.⁹ A situational training exercise (STX) is a task-based, limited exercise focused on movement and maneuver and designed to train a collective task, a group of related tasks, or battle drills, while a live-fire exercise (LFX) integrates maneuver with the employment of organic and supporting weapon systems using full-caliber or subcaliber ammunition to train and evaluate a unit’s ability to coordinate multiple direct and indirect weapon systems.⁹ A fire coordination exercise (FCX) trains the integration of direct and indirect fires using a reduced force, such as a combined arms battalion fielding only command, platoon leader, and platoon sergeant vehicles alongside a mortar and scout section.⁹ The most resource-intensive forms are the field training exercise (FTX), EXEVAL, combined arms live-fire exercise (CALFEX), mission rehearsal exercise (MRE), and warfighter exercise (WFX), whose complexity grows with the number of maneuvering elements, evaluators, training objectives, and the possible inclusion of live-fire conditions.⁹

Major contemporary exercises

Large multinational exercises serve both training and deterrence functions. The United States European Command’s DEFENDER series, conducted by U.S. Army Europe and Africa, comprises Saber Strike, Immediate Response, and Swift Response; DEFENDER 24 was linked to NATO’s Steadfast Defender exercise and ran from 28 March to 31 May 2024.⁹ DEFENDER 24 was the largest U.S. Army exercise in Europe, involving more than 17,000 U.S. and 23,000 multinational service members from more than 20 Allied and partner nations, among them Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.⁹ Within it, soldiers of Fox Troop, 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment conducted combat arms training during Saber Strike 24 at the Bemowo Piskie Training Area in Poland on April 15, 2024.⁹

The U.S. Air Force conducts recurring exercises such as Red Flag-Alaska, which integrates joint and coalition forces into a realistic threat environment using the largest combat training range in the world, and Freedom Shield, during which the Seventh Air Force tested its ability to command and control airpower when its primary Air Operations Center was unavailable, dispersing personnel and capabilities across multiple locations in what is known as distributed operations.¹² Other recent Air Force events include Operation Deterrent Viking II, an explosive ordnance disposal exercise hosted by the 786th Civil Engineer Squadron at the Baumholder Military Training Area in Germany, and Ready Tiger, designed to test airmen’s ability to rapidly deploy, sustain operations, and generate airpower in simulated austere environments.¹²

Joint and multinational drills extend across the Indo-Pacific and beyond. The MALABAR maritime exercise, hosted by the Indian Navy, drew participation from the United States Navy, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Royal Australian Navy in its 24th edition, which concluded in the Arabian Sea in November 2020.¹¹ Israeli and U.S. air forces have held joint exercises to practice attacking strategic targets, and the multinational “African Lion” exercise in Morocco has grown to include thousands of soldiers from Moroccan, Ghanaian, U.S., and other armies over its several editions.¹¹

Exercises frequently generate diplomatic friction and public alarm. Russia has staged its largest war games since the Cold War, launching major exercises on Europe’s borders, while North Korea has warned of “terrible consequences” over joint drills conducted by the United States and South Korea, whose scale North Korean officials characterized as showing the South’s “dual personality”.¹⁰ In one instance, U.S.-led war games near the Russian border in Lithuania involved some 18,000 troops.¹⁰ Exercises can also unsettle civilian populations far from any front line: overnight military training in Pasadena, California, surprised and startled local residents.¹³

History and physical conditioning

Organized physical exercise has been traced to ancient Greek times, where it was regarded as an integral part of individual development.¹⁵ A distinct sense of “military exercise” refers to the physical-fitness regimen used to prepare and condition service members, a tradition that later shaped civilian fitness culture.¹⁴ A military training approach was first introduced in 1888 at the Elmira Reformatory in Elmira, New York, and, according to a 1998 Washington Post article, the Royal Canadian Air Force Workout inspired the fitness movement of the 1950s, making civilian boot-camp workouts throwbacks to 1950s military-style exercise.¹⁴ Modern civilian fitness boot camps have existed for roughly 25 years in the United States, where they originated, and took off in the United Kingdom only around 2005–2006.¹⁴

Each branch of the U.S. military maintains a physical fitness test that candidates must pass to demonstrate the strength, stamina, and resolve to be fit for duty.⁵ Military-style training prioritizes movements that mimic the challenges soldiers face — strength, endurance, agility, and mental resilience — over aesthetics or muscle isolation.⁵ Such programs draw on calisthenics and functional movements — push-ups, pull-ups, and crunches — alongside compound lifts like squats and deadlifts, and extend to obstacle courses and ruck marches.⁵ Bodyweight drills such as the bear crawl, the sandbag deadlift, burpees, and pull-ups are staples of special-forces conditioning intended to build strength, breathing, and mental toughness with little or no equipment.⁶

The U.S. Army Fitness Test (AFT), which replaced the ACFT in June 2025, comprises five events scored on a 0–100 scale: a three-repetition-maximum deadlift with a hex bar, the hand-release push-up over two minutes, the sprint-drag-carry shuttle event, the plank, and the two-mile run; general passing requires 300 total points, with combat specialties requiring 350.⁷ Research on military trainees indicates that mixing strength work with conditioning — using bodyweight circuits, kettlebells, and sandbags — builds more endurance, power, and job-specific fitness than logging endless miles, and that progressive bodyweight circuits build the strength endurance, core stability, and power needed for military tasks.⁷ Military-inspired training characteristically uses high-volume, low-intensity total-body sessions, an approach that exercise science treats as contested but that can build muscular endurance and improve body composition.¹⁶

Ethics and psychological preparation

Beyond physical and tactical objectives, some analysts argue that field exercises should also prepare soldiers ethically. Military ethicists have concluded that the ethical challenges of modern missions are not well addressed by conventional military ethics education, and researchers have proposed integrating scenario-based operational ethics training into high-intensity military field training as an adjunct to traditional instruction.³ Proponents contend that because battlefield stressors are linked to ethical lapses, embedding ethical scenarios in demanding field exercises can enhance both soldiers’ psychological well-being and mission effectiveness.³