ARRC JOURNAL
EXERCISE ARRCADE GLOBE:
THE FUTURE FOR GEO
COLLABORATION?
Lieutenant Colonel Simon Finch, British Army
Major George McCrea, British Army
Staff Sergeant David Thomas, British Army
Sergeant Thomas Glister, British Army
Exercise ARRCADE GLOBE is the pre-eminent NATO geospatial exercise and is delivered
by the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) as part of the Engineer and Civil Military
Interaction (ECMI) branch training.
It draws together experience and ability
from across the NATO Command and
Force structures to offer the opportunity
for national geospatial entities to
participate in a multinational collective
training environment. In July 2018,
a total of 156 participants from 13
different organisations representing 11
different countries descended on the
Royal Marines Barracks in North Devon,
England to take part in the exercise.
Aim
The aim of the exercise was to deliver
a multi-layered tactical command
post exercise (CPX) in a conventional
warfighting scenario. Do so enabled
various military geospatial cells to
provide geospatial support to a corps
headquarters and below in order to
develop pan-NATO understanding and
collaborative working practises.
The NATO Joint Warfare Centre
authorised the use of the fictional
SKOLKAN
scenario.
Exercise
ARRCADE FUSION 2017 was used as
the enhanced ‘exercise wrap’ as well as
enabling the use of the operational staff
work that had been generated by the
ARRC the previous year.
Representatives from JFC Brunssum
acted as higher 4-star headquarters,
while there was strong support from the
NATO Command Structure representing
the 3- and 2-star levels of command.
The ARRC geospatial cell was joined
by geospatial cells from NATO Rapid
Deployment Corps Turkey and Italy, as
well as Multinational Division-Southeast.
Spread across the different command
levels were national elements from
Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Norway, Portugal, the UK and USA.
Geospatial support to the NATO Force
Structure is the responsibility of the
framework nation, which means there is
a rich blend of knowledge and experience
to draw upon, helping to push forward
collaboration.
The key theme was to develop the idea
and mind-set of analysts, not technicians.
Exercise Construct
The exercise was designed to span
five levels of command, from a 4-star
headquarters
down
to
battalion/
battlegroup level. A daily situational
awareness brief (SAB) was used to
control events and generate analytical
opportunities
from
which
teams
developed tasks.
Exercise ARRCADE GLOBE 2018 deployed technical accommodation and real life support laydown at Royal
Marine Barracks-Chivenor.
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ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS