The Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) recently concluded its participation in NATO’s Exercise STEADFAST JAZZ 2013 conducted 2 – 9 November in Latvia.

During the demanding exercise, which tested and trained Joint Forces Command Brunssum (JFC Brunssum) in preparation for its role as the 2014 ready NATO Response Force (NRF), Commander, Joint Warfare Centre German Army Major General Erhard Buehler served as the Officer Directing the Exercise (ODE).

As ODE, Major General Buehler and the JWC were responsible for the approximately 18 months of planning and design efforts that led up to the actual execution of the exercise, and served as the Exercise Control (EXCON) from both Adazi Base near Riga, Latvia and at JWC in Stavanger, Norway.

According to Major General Buehler, the exercise provided a valuable learning experience for JFC Brunssum:

“In designing the exercise script, or ‘storyline,’ JWC was able to test the Command and Control of the JFC as well as specialized areas such as cyber defence and ballistic missile defence.”

Major General Buehler explained that JWC’s role in the actual execution of the exercise is that of a stage manager:

“The people of JWC are the ones who actually control the type of situations or incidents that the training audience has to respond to, using JEMM (Joint Exercise Management Module), which is a sophisticated software program. We also provide advisers to the training audience and ensure that current doctrine is in line with how the training audience conducts its operations.”

STEADFAST JAZZ involved 3,000 headquarters personnel from JFC Brunssum and the JWC along with personnel from the Baltic countries of Lativa, Estonia and Lithuania, plus an additional 3,000 personnel who participated in a live-fire exercise at Poland’s Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area.

Check JWC's Facebook page for more pictures of SFJZ 13: facebook.com/NATO.JWC