READY FOR TODAY – EVOLVING FOR TOMORROW
OPERATION HUSKY:
ITS RELEVANCE FOR A
CONTEMPORARY NATO JOINT
TASK FORCE HEADQUARTERS
Major James Grant, British Army
The aim of Exercise ARRCADE CAESAR 2018 (AC18) was to study the 1943 Allied
campaign in Sicily – codenamed Operation HUSKY – and to draw contemporary issues
and lessons from a joint task force (JTF) headquarters perspective whilst further
developing work on corps recalibration toward a warfighting role.
The three key lessons identified were:
The importance of a JTF headquarters to
ensure unity of purpose and coherence
of operational priorities during both the
planning and execution of an operation;
the need for an agile battle rhythm to
enable planning at different speeds (e.g.
SOF vs conventional forces); and the
difficulties in the governance of occupied
territories (e.g. re-occupied NATO
territory or occupied non-NATO territory).
Exercise AC18 was an
ARRC collective training
event that included senior
representation from a
wide variety of NATO
formations, to include US
Army Europe, affiliated
multinational divisions
and British Army
brigades. The week-long
staff ride followed the
1943 Sicilian Campaign
from the beach landings
on the Avola Coast,
across the Catania Plain,
through the fortress
towns of Centuripe and
Adrano and finished
looking across the
Straits of Messina toward
mainland Italy.
ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS
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