This November, LANDCOM will participate in NATO’s largest
exercise for 2017. Exercise TRIDENT JAVELIN is a command-post, computer
assisted exercise happening primarily at NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre in
Stavanger, Norway. The exercise is unique because it will exercise LANDCOM’s
ability to command and control a Major Joint Operation ‘plus’ (MJO+), which is
three or more Army Corps, in a NATO Article 5 environment (Collective Defense).
Joint Force Command Brunssum, LANDCOM and MARCOM are designated as primary
training audiences, with SHAPE and AIRCOM designated as secondary training
audiences. This will be the first time in almost 20 years that a MJO+ operation
will have been exercised.
The preparation for the exercise initially started under the
lead of Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in the spring of 2016. ACT is NATO’s
strategic headquarters located in Norfolk, Virginia, and is responsible for
transforming NATO’s military structure, capabilities and doctrine. Since that
time, a core team with members from all participating Headquarters has been
continuously working on the development and training objectives for TRIDENT
JAVELIN.
LANDCOM individual training
In the months leading up to TRIDENT JAVELIN, LANDCOM
personnel will have participated in a number of education and training
opportunities in order to prepare themselves and the command for their role in
the exercise. Over the last year, personnel have been trained in their crisis
and conflict roles with Battle Staff Training together with Joint Force Command
Brunssum. Additionally, LANDCOM conducted off-site training over more than 10
months in order to bring all critical personnel up to a common high level of knowledge
and skills.
With the rate of summer personnel turnover in the
headquarters, LANDCOM executed an aggressive approach to rapidly train newly
arrived personnel in these tasks in order to achieve a common level of
understanding prior to November. The learning curve for new personnel is always
a challenge for any headquarters, and multiple training iterations over the
summer helped mitigate those challenges. Summer of 2017 saw the need for the
command to focus on collective training in order to build the team and prepare
for the exercise.
Exercise DACIAN GUARDIAN
In June, a small contingent of LANDCOM personnel deployed to
Multinational Division South East (MND-SE) in Bucharest, Romania, in support of
Exercise DACIAN GUARDIAN. During the exercise, the LANDCOM team served as the
higher headquarters for MND-SE and was able to both assist them by serving in a
higher HQ function and conduct a similar command and control function that
LANDCOM will be fulfilling during Exercise TRIDENT JAVELIN. The exercise provided
LANDCOM with the ability to identify best practices and lessons learned that
are then carried forward throughout the summer and into November. "These types
of opportunities help both higher and lower command, and I think this is
definitely something we should sustain in the future as we continue to improve
our ability to both serve as land advocates for the Alliance and as potential
command and control headquarters for NATO land forces,” said Chief Warrant
Officer Stephen Rice, LANDCOM’s Senior Enlisted Leader.
Exercise LOYAL BONUS
LOYAL BONUS is a LANDCOM Battle Staff training exercise
integrated within a higher echelon battle rhythm. The second iteration of this
exercise, LOYAL BONUS II, occurred from 2-13 October and prepared personnel who
will go to TRIDENT JAVELIN in cross functional cooperation and coordination of
the various battle rhythm events during the exercise.
Exercise LOYAL LANCE
After arriving at the Joint Warfare Center in November,
personnel will conduct LOYAL LANCE, a pre-exercise that will occur just prior
to the start of TRIDENT JAVELIN. LOYAL LANCE will include both LANDCOM
personnel and any augmented reinforcements that are scheduled to come from
various NATO member nations in order to fulfill specific roles. This exercise
is the last opportunity to check systems, communications and internal
procedures prior to the start of TRIDENT JAVELIN.
External preparation and
training
In addition to all the training conducted by LANDCOM
personnel, there is of course all the training happening by all the other
participating commands. Several conferences with up to 300 participants from
all NATO nations have been conducted over Europe in 2016 and 2017, in places
like Brussels, London and Luxembourg, in order to synchronize the progress in
the exercise development.
All participating headquarters had to go through special
training including academic, key leader training, and individual training in
order to increase and upgrade special skills. Additionally, collective training
focused in different battle staff exercises was conducted in order to achieve
their training objectives in the exercise. The different Land Corps and
Divisions are integrated with common development of the CONOPs, as well as
contributing to an Air-Land Integration Conference and the GRF(L) back briefs
to the LANDCOM Commander.
In order to achieve exercise success from strategic to
tactical level the exercise events and injects had to be developed, harmonized
and synchronized between different headquarters under the lead and control of
the Joint Warfare Center. NATO nations, as well as International Organizations,
are additionally contributing to the exercise in order to train in a realistic,
holistic scenario.
Exercise Endstate
The result of this entire process for LANDCOM is that it
will be validated on its ability to conduct one of its primary missions of
providing the core headquarters responsible for the conduct of NATO land
operations.