June 22, 2023

Manchin Applauds Completion of West Virginia National Guard's Ridge Runner Irregular Warfare Exercise

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Chairman of the SASC Cybersecurity Subcommittee, applauded the completion of the West Virginia National Guard’s Ridge Runner Irregular Warfare Exercise. The nearly two-week long exercise spanned throughout West Virginia and brought more than 420 members of the U.S. military, special operations community, allies and partners from 16 different nations and observers to conduct a dynamic and realistic irregular warfare scenario.

"The West Virginia National Guard continues to prove that they are among the best in the world," said Senator Manchin. "I applaud everyone involved with successfully restarting the Ridge Runner exercise, which develops and executes realistic training environments for irregular warfare across our great state. These simulations are critical to ensuring America and our allies are prepared and ready to handle the destabilizing tactics we're seeing Russia and China employ through organizations like the Wagner Group. I was proud to secure $4 million through the FY 2023 federal funding bill to support the Ridge Runner exercise, and I will continue advocating for projects like these that strengthen and defend America's national security."

“The Ridge Runner Irregular Warfare exercise helps provide critical cross-training and preparation of both special operations and joint forces to conduct irregular warfare activities while deployed into potentially hostile or contested environments,” said Maj. Gen. Bill Crane, Adjutant General for the West Virginia National Guard. “Today’s complex environment demands we look to this type of realistic training to prepare our forces to combat malign and malicious activities by adversaries and peer competitors. Our partnership with the IWC is allowing us to expand and enhance the Ridge Runner program to become a premier training venue for domestic and international forces right here in West Virginia all while supporting national security objectives. In addition, we were able to work with other state Adjutants Generals through the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program to bring partner and allied forces to train in West Virginia on irregular warfare tasks.”

The Department of Defense defines irregular warfare as the struggle among state and non-state actors to influence populations and affect legitimacy. Key components of the exercise, which was cohosted by the Irregular Warfare Center, concentrated on building long-term interoperability between U.S. and foreign national special operations and conventional forces, enabling mission essential tasks and assessing readiness while enhancing strategic and operational irregular warfare capabilities. Observers from Canada, Georgia, Moldova, Qatar, Hungary, Germany, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Australia, and the United Kingdom Special Air Service were present.