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NEWS | June 18, 2019

Diamond Saber: Army Reserve kicks off Army’s largest FM exercise

By Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner U.S. Army Financial Management Command

The Army Reserve Command kicked off the training portion of Diamond Saber 2019, the Army’s largest and primary financial management exercise, here today.

Diamond Saber is designed to provide realistic technical training to regular Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard FM units through interactive scenarios and transactions based upon current policy in a collective environment, said Maj. David Park, Diamond Saber 2019 exercise planner.

“Our primary goal this year is to train units going downrange in the near future,” Park said. “Our exercise will provide deploying commanders with a current assessment so they can tailor their units’ pre-deployment training plans with U.S. Army Financial Management Command.”

This year, the exercise involves 14 active and reserve component FM units from 12 U.S. states and territories, six of which are deploying within the next year.

According to event organizers, the Army deploys FM units as part of a sustainment warfighting function, and these units must be ready to deploy and to support a wide range of operations and global contingencies. 

On top of giving commanders a snapshot of the training their units need, Diamond Saber also provides synergy amongst the FM Soldiers, which has effects on the battlefield.

“This is our one opportunity for these units to operate in a collective environment,” Park explained. “This is a chance for our deploying Soldiers to build relationships here so they function better downrange.”

The exercise this year will be segmented into two parts. The first week will focus on classroom training on various FM subjects including disbursing operations, resource management, military pay, commercial vendor services and leadership development.

The second week will be a scenario-driven evaluation of the units based on three real-world contingency scenarios and events. Not only will units have to conduct their FM functions, they will have to employ their core Army warrior tasks as they undergo battle drills. 

While Diamond Saber 2019 is newly focused on the warfighter, it will also feature several other firsts including training a military unit from Denmark, involving Air Force and Marine Corps units, testing remote capabilities with geographically separated units, and integrating the full spectrum on resource management and contracting, Park said.

Stay connected with the events of Diamond Saber 2019 by following the exercise on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DiamondSaber2019.