LANDCOM OCC EVALUATORS CERTIFY
KAZAKHSTAN BATTALION
By LANDCOM PAO
Personnel from LANDCOMs Military Cooperation ( MILCOOP ) branch executed a NATO-led Operational Capabilities Concept ( OCC ) evaluation of KAZBAT , a Kazakhstan Mechanised Infantry Battalion , from 29 July to 4 August . The team also conducted an OCC Evaluator Training Course training and certifying 33 students from 21 different countries from both NATO and partners nations . The evaluation was conducted in conjunction with Exercise STEPPE EAGLE 17 , and included 130 U . S . Army personnel and 45 British Army personnel in various training and support roles .
LANDCOM has been heavily involved in the planning and preparation of this event since 2016 , including advisory visits to both the United Kingdom and Kazakhstan .
" The evaluation went very well and I am glad that we [ LANDCOM ] are able to provide this support ,” said Lt .
Col . Tore Bade , LANDCOM Military Cooperation Branch Head ( NOR ). " Our Mobile Training Teams and Operational Capabilities Program provides significant benefits to both NATO and partner nations .”
As one of NATOs three core tasks , Collective Defence , Crisis Management and Cooperative Security , Cooperative Security is one of the fastest growing areas in recent years . In a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington D . C . on April 6 , 2016 , NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said , " In the fight against terrorism , building local capacity is one of the best weapons we have , and the earlier we can do it , the better .”
In order to assist in building local capacity , LANDCOM has tripled the number of its activities from 36 in 2015 to 84 projected for 2017 by the end of the year .
NATO currently interacts with 42 partner countries and of these LANDCOM is interacting with 23 of them this year .
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