By Lieutenant Colonel Travis Neddersen, U.S. Army, Wargaming Branch Head, NATO Joint Warfare Centre
Ulm, GERMANY – The Joint Warfare Centre’s (JWC) wargame team has completed its first large-scale wargame in support of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and the Joint Support and Enabling Command (JSEC).
The wargame, called “Ready to Fight”, was created, developed, and produced completely within the JWC’s Wargaming Branch.
The wargame was tailored specifically to the requirements of SHAPE logisticians and the JSEC to use in the annual wargaming exercise “Joint European Time-Phased Force Flow Deployment and Sustainment Series”, also known as JETS 3.0.
The purpose of the JETS wargame is to enhance understanding and cooperation of enablement, force deployment, and sustainment missions within SACEUR's area of responsibility (AOR).
Other participating commands and organizations included Joint Force Command Brunssum, Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC NE), and the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM), as well as a number of participants representing national headquarters of host nations and troop contributing nations of the NATO Response Force (NRF).
Utilizing the JWC’s 360-degree exercise environment, the wargame focused on the movement and logistics considerations involved with deploying the entire NRF as well as a full U.S.-based heavy division.
Through multiple days of wargaming, participants gained significant insights into the complexity of conducting rapid, large-scale troop deployments and the challenges of sustainment command and control during the early phases of a crisis response operation.
Importantly, the wargame also enhanced collective understanding of the JSEC’s role in enabling the effective flow of follow-on forces.
The JWC is proud that its new Wargaming Branch has demonstrated the viability of wargaming as a training tool within NATO and is helping forge the way ahead for the European sustainment community.
The branch will continue to support the enablement effort in the emerging STEADFAST FOXTROT exercise series, and continue to develop new challenging wargames in other fields to help drive advancement of NATO concepts.
Photos from JETS 3.0