Near 6,000 service members and civilians will participate in Exercise Unified Endeavor 13-1; International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Training Event 12/02 (UE 13-1; TE 12/02) until 14 December 2012.
The exercise is taking place in eight different locations spread over the Continental United States and Europe with the Joint Multinational Simulation Center (JMSC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany being the main exercise location for the Training Audiences and the Combined Exercise Control Group (CECG) structure.
UE 13-1; TE 12/02 is a joint/combined, distributed U.S. and NATO four-tiered exercise co-directed by U.S. Army Major General Bryan G. Watson, Deputy Director U.S. Joint and Coalition Warfighting (JCW) and French Army Major General Jean-Fred Berger, Commander of NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre (JWC).
The exercise is conducted by four training organizations across the United States and Europe: the JCW, the JWC, the JFTC, and the Mission Command Training Program (MCTP). In addition, elements from the 505th Command and Control Wing (505th CCW) and U.S. Army Europe (USAEUR) are also supporting this largest-ever pre-deployment training event.
The aim of the exercise is to train, rehearse, foster team building and strengthen synergies between the Standing HQs, Individual Augmentees (IAs) and units that will start filling key staff and command positions in HQ ISAF, ISAF Joint Command (HQ IJC) and the Regional Commands East/North/Southwest early next year.
Overall there are a total of 14 different Training Audiences. The Standing HQs for HQ ISAF include personnel from NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC Brunssum) reinforced by Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples), Joint Command Lisbon (JC Lisbon) and Allied Force Command Madrid (FCMD). For HQ IJC the Training Audiences are III Corps U.S., NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Italy (NRDC-ITA), 1 (German/Netherlands) Corps (1(GE/NL)Corps), and selected IAs from Troop Contributing Nations.
UE 13-1; TE 12/02 is built on first-hand, on-the-ground experience being incorporated into the training scenario based on projected requirements and conditions for spring 2013. A Combined Exercise Control Group (CECG) has been established in Grafenwoehr in order to execute and control the exercise in the United States, Germany, Norway and Poland simultaneously. As such, the exercise replicates the mission in Afghanistan and creates opportunities for different Training Audiences to fully understand the Commander’s strategic focus on mission-related issues such as transition, development of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the overall campaign, governance and rule of law, socio-economic development and sustainment.
During the Operational Environment Briefing on 4 December, Major General Jean-Fred Berger, Commander JWC, thanked the U.S. and NATO training experts from four training organizations; the Flag and Field-Grade Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who support the exercise with their knowledge and broad expertise as well as U.S. Army Europe for hosting the training event in Grafenwoehr.
Major General Berger also paid tribute to the U.S. V Corps for their commitment and achievements; as they are the unit presently serving in Afghanistan that received the first U.S.-NATO joint training early this year. He pointed out that the exercise is all about team-building and understanding specific organizational processes and systems to build an integrated, confident and capable team before the actual deployment so that each individual can immediately take charge of his/her duties once in theatre.
The training involves close to 100 SMEs, recently redeployed either from HQ ISAF or HQ IJC; Senior Mentors led by Royal Marine Major General (Ret.) Roger Lane CBE FCMI, the former Deputy Commander Operations at HQ ISAF, as well as General Officers from ANSF, in order to provide expert advice, motivation, detailed mentoring and common understanding of Afghanistan.
As noted by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Afghanistan remains NATO’s largest operation, with over 130,000 troops as part of the 50-Nation Coalition, determined to ensure Afghans develop the abilities to secure and govern themselves, so that the country will never again be a base for global terrorism.
Photos by Mr Jason Bowman, JMSC