NRDC-ESP VALIANT LYNX 18 : SPANISH ARMY MAJOR COMMITMENT TO NATO IN 2018 .
By LTC José María ARMENTA ( ESP ), NRDC-ESP Public Affairs Office .
VALIANT LYNX 2018 ( VL18 ) has been a Spanish Army sponsored exercise whose aim was to train the Headquarters NATO Rapid Deployment Corps-España ( HQ NRDC-ESP ) as an Army Corps Headquarters , subordinated to a Land Component Command HQ ( LANDCOM ), in commanding and controlling a multinational deployed force during decisive operations . It consisted of a Command Post phase ( CPX ) and a Live phase ( LIVEX ). The exercise was carried out from 20 to 28 May 2018 and was mainly conducted in two training areas simultaneously : Chinchilla ( Albacete ) and San Gregorio ( Zaragoza ), as well as in Bétera Military Base and Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base ( see fig . 1 ).
An Exercise Control ( EXCON ) Centre composed of more than 150 military personnel , and located at Bétera was established in order to set the necessary conditions to reach the training objectives by the respective audiences . The scenario staged a NATO-led Article 5 ( Art 5 ) Collective Defense operation in a fictitious state where a multinational force was deployed . In order to produce a credible and realistic scenario , the EXCON created more than 350 incidents that had to be played by the HQ NRDC and its subordinate units .
VALIANT LYNX 2018 counted on a robust participation with different types of units and organizations , both Spanish and multinational ones . From the Spanish perspective , the exercise served to measure and verify the combat readiness of NRDC-ESP Headquarters , " San Marcial ” ESP Division Headquarters , ESP Artillery Command ( MACA ), ESP Guadarrama Armored Brigade and ESP Cavalry Regiment “ España ” 11 in accordance with NATO standards ; from the multinational perspective , the exercise involved the participation of the LANDCOM , the affiliated Portuguese and Greece Mechanized Brigades , the NATO Force Integration Units-Estonia ( NFIU EST ), and the Multinational Corps-Northeast HQ ( MNC-NE ).
The participation of these organizations was paramount : LANDCOM played the role of the higher echelon in a Land
San Marcial Division Headquarters ´ Command Post deployed in Chinchilla , Spain , during the Exercise Valiant Lynx 2018 .
28 LAND POWER