PerspectivesOn Saber Junction-II

46 ARMY � March 2013

Soldiers of 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, U.S.Army Europe, stage at a village in Germany before enter-ing one of the area’s major civilian roads during SaberJunction 2012 last October. It was the largest joint, multi-national military exercise of its kind in Europe since 1989,involving some 6,000 personnel from 19 nations.

Welcome to Atropia! This fic-

tional region in eastern Bavaria,

Germany, recently served as the

training environment for Saber

Junction 2012, U.S. Army Europe’s (USAREUR)

premier training event hosted by the Joint

Multinational Training Command in Grafen-

wöhr and Hohenfels. Roughly 6,000 personnel

from 19 nations participated in the exercise de-

signed to train the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in

Decisive Action Training Environment, as out-

lined in the U.S. Army’s new Unified Land Op-

erations doctrine. Saber Junction, conducted

last fall, is the largest joint, multinational mili-

tary exercise of its kind in Europe since 1989.

“To adhere to the U.S. Army’s unified doc-

trine, we attempted to create a scenario that

supports the two core competencies, wire

security and combined arms maneuver,” said

U.S. Army CPT Matthew Todd, Joint Multina-

tional Readiness Center (JMRC) rotational

planner. “We created this fictional land by

taking real-world data and overlaying it on

the Maneuver Rights Area [MRA].”

March 2013 � ARMY 47

U.S. Army/SSG Pablo Piedra

USAREUR Exercise PromotesInteroperability Among U.S.Army and Allied Nations

By SSG Brooks Fletcher

Location, Location, LocationThe exercise used the MRA, a 1,200-square-mile expanse

of land located between USAREUR’s Grafenwöhr and Ho-henfels training areas, which required units to maneuverthrough actual German villages and roadways.“It brought a level of realism and depth to the scenario,

which would otherwise not be able to be replicated,” saidMAJ Andy Watson, 2nd Cavalry Regiment operations offi-cer. “What that did was replicate the complexities that arefound in the current operations that we conduct inAfghanistan and elsewhere, as well as what our future op-erations will be as military forces from around the globecontinue to reduce … and restructure.”There are six “mock” cities in Atropia: Aghjabadi,

Yevlakh, Aran, Barda, Kibirli and Mechradly. They are com-posed of elements such as sports fields, mosques, watertowers, train stations, gas stations, municipal buildings, fac-tories and market areas, all of which contribute to the envi-ronment’s realism. When you combine this environment with JMRC’s pro-

fessional opposing forces (OPFOR), the 1st Battalion, 4th In-fantry Regiment, an array of military weaponry and equip-ment, contractors and local nationals acting as a communityof cultural role-players, you add further realism to the train-ing, which not only prepares 2nd Cavalry Regiment for pre-sent-day operations but also for a range of future missions,said Reginald Bourgeois, JMRC Deputy S-3.“The enemy is as smart as you are. They’ll speak any lan-

guage except the one you want them to,” said Bourgeois.“When you add all that, it becomes a very realistic town.”With such a complex battlefield, Bourgeois explained, to-day’s operations require joint, interagency, intergovern-mental and multinational participation.

Joint, Multinational PartnershipAugmenting the warriors of 1-4 Infantry Regiment OP-

FOR were task forces from the Federal Defense Forces ofGermany and the Army of the Czech Republic, as well as el-

48 ARMY � March 2013

SSG Brooks Fletcher has been in the Army since August 2005and currently serves with U.S. Army Europe in Heidelberg,Germany. His other assignments include the 31st Air DefenseArtillery Brigade, Fort Bliss, Texas, and the 20th Public AffairsDetachment and 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Wain-wright, Alaska. He has a bachelor’s degree in communicationstudies and graduated from the Defense Information School as apublic affairs specialist/photojournalist.

Right, PFC Alexan-der Robinson, 2nd

Squadron, 2ndCavalry Regiment,awaits the order tomove his Strykervehicle to supportan assault duringSaber Junction atGrafenwöhr Train-

ing Area, Germany.Below, soldiers

from the SlovenianArmed Forces

prepare to assaultan enemy fighting

position during the exercise. U

.S. Army/SSG Joel Salgado

U.S. Army/SPC Joshua Leonard

March 2013 � ARMY 49

Left, an opposingforce from the JointMultinationalReadiness Center’s1st Battalion, 4thInfantry Regimentfires a rocket-pro-pelled grenadeduring a firefight.Below, soldiersfrom the Italian“Folgore” AirborneBrigade load up onammunition beforeengaging opposingforces in a mockterrorist trainingcamp.

ements from the Norwegian Armed Forces.“We’ve attempted to create a highly complex opposing

threat,” said CPT Todd. “Not only do we have conventionalforces, but we have insurgent forces, criminal elements andterrorist elements all within that formation.” While having such a diverse OPFOR may seem like a dis-

advantage to the “Dragoons” of 2nd Cavalry Regiment,multinational partners have come in force to assist them inthis exercise.With the U.S. Army Special Forces and Air Force, as well

as British, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Serbian, Slovenian andUkrainian armed forces providing assistance and serving asrotational training units, the exercise brought a variety ofmilitary equipment, weaponry, vehicles and aircraft to-gether in one unique training environment. The FBI; Bureauof Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug En-forcement Administration; Department of Homeland Secu-rity; Department of State; and U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment also participated in Saber Junction.“We validated things that were known to be true through-

out USAREUR,” said MAJ Watson. “Over the years we haveworked with our various multinational partners. The multi-national military forces bring a number of diverse strengthsthat are value added to operations and organizations.”Additional elements such as host-nation security and spe-

cial operation forces, provided by Romania, Bulgaria,France and the United States, were included in the trainingsituations and scenarios, all contributing to the idea that“we train how we fight.”

Evaluate and ValidateAt the heart and soul of the exercise are JMTC’s observer-

coach-trainers (OCTs). Forged from sergeants first class andplatoon sergeants, all the way to a brigade commander, theyare hand-selected to accompany every leader in the fieldand mentor them in tactics, techniques and procedures, saidBourgeois.With more than 470 trained OCTs on the battlefield, in-

cluding personnel from the United States, Belgium, Geor-gia, Sweden and France, everything happening in Atropiais under evaluation.“Our main job is to observe how [training units] apply tac-

tics and procedure during the engagement; when they makemistakes, we coach them,” said Romanian Land Forces’ Maj.Mihaa Cueta, a senior OCT from Romania’s Combat Train-ing Center. “We are here to ensure that they do things right.”“Saber Junction is a great opportunity for me, my OCT

U.S. Army/SGT Michael Reinsch

U.S. Army/SSG Brooks Fletcher

colleagues and the battalion,”Maj. Cueta said. “The operationalenvironment is very realistic andprofessional. It’s not only goodfor the 2nd Cavalry Regiment butalso for secondary training unitslike the [Romanian Land Forces’]300th Infantry Battalion.”With a large-scale training en-

vironment involving thousandsof moving pieces, execution andcoverage require not just radiosand a map but also an eagle-eyedview of the entire MRA.“JMTC has the ability to lay a

communication umbrella over theentire MRA and capture every-thing that is going on in the fieldand bring it into an after-actionreview,” Bourgeois said. “This al-lows us to stop participants andask, ‘What do you think hap-pened?’ We tell them what reallyhappened and three things thatcan be fixed for the future.”The exercise also served as a

communications test between allied and joint forces in Vi-cenza, Italy; the National Training Center in Fort Irwin,Calif.; and the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk,La. This integration isn’t limited to joint and multinationalmilitary organizations; it applies to governmental organiza-tions as well, as they provide expertise in stability opera-tions of the exercise.

Interagency and InteroperabilityAccording to Jim Derleth, JMRC senior interagency train-

ing advisor, the U.S. Army’s doctrine notes that strategicsuccess in modern and future operations requires fully inte-grating the effort of interagency and multinational partnersin U.S. military unified land operations. “Anywhere we go in the world we are going to interact

March 2013 � ARMY 51

Left, Bulgarian spe-cial forces soldiersprepare to conducta raid on the mocktown of Ubungs-dorf. Below, a Ro-manian soldierkeeps an eye on aweapons cachediscovered duringa patrol throughoutthe GrafenwöhrTraining Area dur-ing Saber Junction. U.S. Army/SGT Michael Reinsch

U.S. Army/SSG Joel Salgado

52 ARMY � March 2013

with the government,” said Derleth. “The long-term goalof the U.S. government is to stabilize that country. One ofthe things we have done [during Saber Junction] is to takea very holistic approach to interagency participation.”Effectively integrating these agencies requires that the

military leaders understand their interagency partners:who they are, how they operate and what their resourcesare. They then work to build scenarios to test their under-standing and train the OCTs in understanding the dynam-ics of interagency operations so they can report if thelessons learned by the units are being applied, Derleth said.“What [units] do tactically has strategic consequences,”

Derleth said. “We have to train in integrating all the partsof the U.S. government, state policy and working with thevarious government organizations to smooth things overin the various countries.”This realistic interaction with external agencies and U.S.

and multinational allies is an essential part in building co-hesion and interoperability among all organizations. Training for future conflicts through exercises like Saber

Junction ensures that both U.S. military and interagencypartners have the mutual experience of dealing with oneanother, which better prepares them for operations.

* * *

With a uniformed, joint and multinational architectureof participants—opposing forces, observation teams, andinteragency and intergovernmental organizations—wrapped up in the dynamic, geographical confines of US-AREUR’s training center, cultural barriers become almostnonexistent and interoperability certain, making SaberJunction more than just a training exercise. It is the futureof military training. �

A German soldier with the 104th Panzer Battalion talks toan American observer-coach-trainer after his tank was hitand designated as disabled. Below, British soldiers withthe Mercian Regiment’s 3rd Battalion based in Falling-bostel, Germany, clear a jam from an M249 during trainingat Grafenwöhr before taking part in Saber Junction.

U.S. Army/SSG Brooks Fletcher

U.S. Army/SPC Joshua Leonard