Defence Services Command and Staff College

EXERCISE SHADOW DANCE -2024

This is one of the major exercises conducted in the Second Term of the course, which is an operational and tactical level joint Command Post Exercise (CPX) aimed at practicing Course Participants in planning and execution of offensive and defensive operations as Sri Lankan forces and Videsh forces. This exercise is designed to test Course Participants by guiding them through the entire range of Command and Staff functions to perform in formation level planning and war fighting. This is one of the most significant exercises in the college curriculum, which offers extensive level of joint planning and execution with the culmination of conducting a joint war-game. The objective of the exercise aimed at developing Course Participants’ knowledge in planning and conducting joint offensive and defensive operations, enhancing their knowledge in applying decision making tools for operations, improving their knowledge on battle procedure and its integral components, exercising their mind-set in planning, preparation and conducting of a Command Post Exercise (CPX) at operational and tactical level and testing Army Course Participants’ ability in writing an Overlay Order of Combat Service Support.

The exercise was conducted over a period of eight days from 12 to 20 June 2023. During the exercise Course Participants plans were effectively tried and tested to evaluate the Course of Actions (COAs) formulated by both the opposing forces through a comprehensive joint planning process during the CPX. At the end of the CPX, Course Participants attended for a realistic press briefing before a panel of journalists who have vast experiences in the field. This experience paved the way for Course Participants to comprehend the complexity and manage themselves in the domain of present day context of media and art of responding to an array of challenging questions raised by journalists.

At the end of the exercise, the Army Course Participants attended a Red Ink Correction (RIC) in writing an Overlay Order of Combat Service Support.

2024 EXERCISE SHADOW DANCE