ARRC JOURNAL
THE ARRC’S GROUND LIAISON
ELEMENT ON EXERCISE TRIDENT
JUNCTURE 2018
Colonel Richard Head, British Army
“We are the best Ground Liaison Element in all the HRF(L)s in NATO...” we confidently
announce to anyone who is briefed on the role of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps’s
(ARRC) Ground Liaison Element (GLE). This is always followed up, with a wry smile,
“…because we are the only HRF(L) Ground Liaison Element in NATO!”
However, things are changing and for the
better. On the recent Exercise TRIDENT
JUNCTURE 2018 (TRJE18) command
post exercise (CPX), a newly trained
team of five staff from the 1st German-
Netherlands Corps (1GNC) teamed up
with the two-person ARRC GLE team
to provide the Land Component, played
by 1GNC, with its own GLE inside the
Air Component. The aim of this essay
is to provide a brief overview of what
the ARRC’s GLE does and look at the
key themes that arose from this recent
exercise as we worked alongside our
comrades from 1GNC.
GLE: A brief overview
The GLE is comprised of land officers,
embedded in the Air Component, who
are placed in key roles within the various
Air Component divisions to ensure
that not only is the Land Component’s
requirements met, but also, conversely,
that any support that the Air Component
requires is resourced by the Land
Component. The GLE’s mission is to act
as the Land Component Commander’s
direct representative in the Air
Component. They articulate his intent,
priorities and provide advice across all
functional areas both in the planning
and execution phases of the Air Tasking
Order, which is the mechanism through
which the Air Component conducts its
campaign. The numbers required to staff
a GLE can vary, however at present it is
36
ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS
Exercise Trident Juncture 2018 logo
assessed that seven to 13 officers are
required.
Exercise TRITDENT
JUNCTURE 2018
Following
Exercise
RAMSTEIN
AMBITION 2018, an internal NATO
Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) training
event, which the ARRC GLE support
on an annual basis by representing the
Land Component, an invitation was
extended by both AIRCOM and 1GNC
who were due to play the role of the
LCC on TRJE18 to be part of their own
developing GLE capability. The offer was
promptly accepted, particularly as it gave
the opportunity to work as a GLE with a
fully functioning 3-star Land Component.
The element of TRJE18 that the ARRC’s
GLE took part in was the CPX piece of
NATO’s major 2018 exercise. Based
on an Article 5 scenario in Norway, a
joint campaign was conducted with
AIRCOM; 1GNC; a maritime component
headquarters based in Taranto, Italy with
two members embedded as a Maritime
Liaison Element (MLE) in the JFAC; a
SOF component; and a significant Joint
Logistic Support Group all working for
JFC Naples. The exercise scenario was
complex, multi-faceted, had significant
depth to it and was suitably long (12
days) to provide the joint commander
with a number of decision points
where the competing priorities of the
components could not all be aligned,
and so prioritization and tough decisions
were required at the highest level.
Themes
As can be imagined there were many
lessons identified on the exercise. These
often focused on low-level processes and
the functionality of individual posts, as
well as where GLE staff could be better
placed within the Air Component. More
importantly, though, a number of themes
either emerged during the exercise
or reinforced lessons from previous
exercises. The top five were particularly
key to understanding the role of the GLE
and the underlying importance of cross
component integration: