JBER battalion finishes the 11th Airborne's first battalion-level artillery evaluation

Paratroopers from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Thursday finished the 11th Airborne Division's first battalion-level artillery evaluation, after 16 days of training near Delta Junction, the Army said.

The 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, moved more than 400 paratroopers and 100 tactical vehicles 350 miles north to the Donnelly Training Area for the Oct. 13-29 exercise.

They fired more than 600 rounds through temperatures as low as zero, 35-knot winds and 12 to 18 inches of snow. The Army said the battalion met all its training objectives.

The evaluation tests whether an artillery battalion can provide coordinated fire support for a mobile brigade combat team.

The main threat in the exercise was simulated enemy counterfire, which the Army called one of the greatest threats to modern artillery. Crews had to fire at the same time from scattered, remote positions, then move their howitzers to new firing points before the simulated enemy could shoot back. Opposing forces also staged hit-and-run attacks on the artillery positions.

This kind of evaluation is normally run by a division artillery headquarters, which the 11th Airborne is set to stand up next year. Without one, the division brought in evaluators from the 17th Field Artillery Brigade and artillerymen from the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.

Lt. Col. Ian P. Grundhauser, the battalion's commander, said it showed the unit can "deliver devastating, precise lethality in some of the most unforgiving, Arctic conditions on the planet."

The battalion has trained at Donnelly before. In July 2025, it ran platoon-level live-fire exercises there, along with an air assault using Chinook helicopters.