ARRC JOURNAL
NEAR REAL-WORLD PLANNING – TURNING WALES AND WARSAW SUMMITS INTO REALITY
Col Richard Clements( GBR-A)
In early 2017, Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps( HQ ARRC), whilst stood by as the NATO Response Force( NRF) Land Component Command( LCC) Headquarters, undertook a period of crisis response planning( CRP) in preparation for Exercise NOBLE JUMP 2( Ex NOJP2). Ex NOJP2 was a readiness and deployment exercise, in which elements of HQ ARRC and the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force( Land)( VJTF( L)) 1 brigade deployed to another NATO Alliance Country.
HQ ARRC’ s planning was the first of its kind by a High Readiness Force( Land) Headquarters as it was based on a modified real world regional Graduated Response Plan( GRP). This enabled HQ ARRC to develop a LCC Operation Order( OPORD), replicating what would occur for real should that GRP be activated. As such, it was the first time that a GRP had been subject to notable scrutiny, and the first time that it had been used to plan for real troops deploying to the region; albeit in a planned exercise using
Romanian troops assigned to NATO’ s Multinational Division Southeast conduct a live fire exercise in the Cincu Training Area in Romania during Exercise Noble Jump 2017
a scenario. This short article aims to highlight some of the lessons identified during CRP, in particular: the value of near-real world planning; the challenges faced when writing GRPs with sufficient detail to be executable rapidly, whilst also being sufficiently generic to cater for numerous potential eventualities; the complexities of rapid deployment planning and the potential value of incremental deployments.
Value of Near-Real World Planning with Host Nation and Key Staff
The first significant lesson was the value of using near-real world or realworld plans. This lesson had previously been identified during 2015, when HQ ARRC planned and deployed to the Baltics. ARRC’ s lessons from 2015 were incorporated into the development of the GRP for that region. Whilst NATO policy is not to exercise real world plans, a small amount of revision of these plans- to de-sensitise them and build in a nearreal world scenario- enables significant training value to be gained. Members of the planning staff at HQ ARRC were able to develop a great understanding of the detail in the real-world GRP, undertake detailed branch level analysis and understand the implications of the geography, regional dynamics and Host Nations’( HN) capabilities. This experience will be invaluable if the realworld GRP is to be activated at any stage whilst enhancing the value of ARRC’ s readiness training and professional development. Another lesson confirmed was the immense value of HN liaison officers and NATO Force Integration
Unit( NFIU) staff. NFIUs are relatively new NATO staff capabilities in HNs; not only do they provide an immediate link between NATO forces and HQs with HNs forces and HQs, but they are critical in early enablement of NATO forces.
Inconsistencies in GRPs
Unsurprisingly, planning also identified inconsistencies between and within the levels of GRPs, which can only be found when testing the plans thoroughly through execution, albeit in a training context. GRPs are constructed with plans at the strategic, operational and tactical( component) levels. Whilst developed collaboratively, these plans are complex and detailed and it is challenging to achieve perfection. Consequently, some of the details contained in the plans were inconsistent between the different levels of plans, while others were inconsistent within a plan. For example, some plans talked of‘ X’ days of supply( DOS), whilst others articulated‘ Y’ DOS; indeed one plan talked of‘ X’ in the main body and‘ Y’ in the annexes. Whilst seemingly trivial, such detail becomes important in the timely execution of plans and can now be corrected.
Command and control
Command and control( C2) is a persistent challenge in an Alliance context. C2
1 The VJTF( L) is a brigade sized force conceived at the Wales Summit in 2014 and now in its second year of combat effectiveness.
10 ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS