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CAMP PENDLETON – This week, the skies and seas around Southern California are filled with military equipment or personnel from seven countries taking part in one of world’s biggest annual training events.Dawn Blitz, a roughly 10-day operation that began Monday, is nothing less than a dress rehearsal for a new type of war.Or, technically, wars.The exercise, which this year involves naval, aviation and ground forces from the U.S., Japan, Mexico and New Zealand, reflects a change of focus for the Marine Corps as it shifts from a post 9/11 emphasis on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism to a full spectrum of operations.Modern Marines and sailors are training for everything from disaster relief and major combat to cyberwarfare and defeating non-traditional threats such as Islamic State.“We have to be prepared for that kind of hybrid, mixed-up, ugly operating environment,” said Lt. Gen. David Berger, who commands more than 50,000 Marines based at the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. About 2,000 Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade and sailors from Expeditionary Strike Group 3 are participating in the exercise.

Source: Want to see the future of war? Military from seven countries descend on Camp Pendleton for ‘war games’ – The Orange County Register

It looks like the Marines are training for similar scenarios as the Army is, wherein units are concurrently conducting both Wide Area Security (WAS) and Decisive Action (DA).

That is, the future battlefield will be chaotic and constantly changing, with units forced to both conduct COIN style operations against non-state actors, while simultaneously facing near-peer military formations operating along more conventional lines.

Doing either task is a challenging operation. Doing both simultaneously is, of course, an even bigger challenge.