The Irregular Warfare Center and the West Virginia National Guard to Jointly Exhibit at the National Guard Association of the United States 145th General Conference & Exhibition
The newly established Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) has teamed up with the West Virginia National Guard’s (WVNG) Ridge Runner program to exhibit at the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS) 145th General Conference & Exhibition from Aug. 18-21 in Reno, NV.
The purpose of this joint exhibition is to provide attendees with an opportunity to learn more about the IWC, WVNG, the Ridge Runner program and the Center’s essential partnership with the WVNG. The Ridge Runner/IWC booth number is 1679 and will feature IWC, WVNG, IW and Ridge Runner program SMEs as well as a variety of organizational information, literature, swag items and networking opportunities.
The NGAUS General Conference is the Association’s annual business meeting. More than 2,000 Army and Air National Guard officers from all 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia are scheduled to gather to network, set their legislative agenda and hear from America’s civilian and military leaders. Family members, industry representatives and local officials are also welcome to attend. As of August 14th, more than 320 companies and organizations have already reserved space on the exhibition floor.
The theme for this year’s conference is America’s National Guard: A Local Force with Global Reach. The NGAUS board of directors chose the theme during its March meeting. MG Janson “Durr” Boyles, the board chairman, said that the slogan was fitting as this year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Guard’s State Partnership Program.
For more information about the 2023 NGAUS General Conference & Exhibition, please visit https://www.ngaus.org/events/145th-general-conference-exhibition
Ridge Runner is jointly supported through the IWC and provides a validation venue for deploying U.S. Military organizations. Ridge Runner exercises offer a dynamic and realistic platform to conduct irregular warfare training, develop interoperability between coalition special operations and conventional forces, enable training on mission essential tasks, and assess readiness while enhancing strategic irregular warfare capabilities.
“We look forward to highlighting the work taking place in the irregular warfare space through Ridge Runner and talking with other states and territories on further expansion of this dynamic exercise program,” stated U.S. Army Maj. Mike Susick, Ridge Runner program director.
The IWC serves as the central mechanism for developing the Department of Defense’s (DoD) irregular warfare knowledge and advancing the Department’s understanding of irregular warfare concepts and doctrine in collaboration with key allies and partners.
The Center’s foundation is built upon three Lines of Effort:
- AMPLIFY and collaborate to build an innovative and adaptable global networked IW community of interest.
- Strategically ILLUMINATE current and future irregular threats, crises, and obstacles.
- ADDRESS current and future irregular threats to the US, allies, and partners by providing optionality to leaders.
Through these LOEs, the Irregular Warfare Center addresses current and emerging security concerns and challenges with world-class research, rigorous analysis, top-tier strategic education and training for U.S. and international partners.
The IWC recently hosted a variety of informative and educational irregular warfare-themed events including its inaugural event, The IW Medical Resiliency Workgroup (Feb. 2022), IWC International IW Week (March 2023), IWC IW Seminar at Georgetown University (March 2023), University Days (April 2023), and PME Day (April 2023), IWC Inaugural Colloquium (July 2023), IW Medical Resiliency Wargame & IW Logistics Resiliency Working Group (August 2023) as well as the facilitating Transformational Irregular Warfare Leaders Thought Courses (TILT-C) for the U.S. interagency (March 2023), U.S. Special Operations Command (April 2023), the intelligence community (May 2023), and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) (June 2023), and the National Resistance Application Course (NRAC) in conjunction with this year’s Ridge Runner planning conference (March 2023) and academic week (June 2023) and many other international programs with various allied and partner nations.