Exercising MJO +:
MULTICORPS LOGISTICS
By LTC Olivier Reinbold ( FRA ), LTC Jose Cordon ( ESP ), and Mr . Mario Pinto ( PRT ), LANDCOM
Last November , LANDCOM participated in NATO ’ s largest exercise of 2017 . The exercise was a command-post , computer assisted exercise that occurred at NATO ’ s Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger , Norway .
This was the first time in almost 20 years that a Logistics Division exercised a Major Joint Operation ‘ plus ’ ( MJO +) scenario . This exercise confirmed the Logistics Division ’ s ability to sustain a MJO +, which consisted of four Army Corps and one Division plus LCC Troops in a NATO Article 5 scenario ( Collective Defence ). During the two week exercise at JWC , the G4 Division was rigorously controlled by the Combat Readiness Evaluation ( CRE- VAL ) team in a complex Article 5 scenario that deliberately incorporated the most demanding challenges the Alliance might face in term of sustainment and command and control ( C2 ). The outcome of the exercise consisted of the G4 Division being certified mission capable and fully opera- tional by the CREVAL team .
Getting ready for the exercise was a challenge for the LCC G4 division mainly because of the inventiveness of the scenario . This brand new exercise was built up to force G4 to think outside the box , while also trying to adapt its organisation to a scenario that deliberately generated a large range of logistics challenges . To fully understand the complexity of the scenario was the first challenge for G4 , which was done by integrating newcomers by participating in battle staff training that occurred in September 2017 . The second challenge was to conduct the sustainment of each army corps , while solving incidents at the operational and tactical levels .
Logistic Challenges
The fictitious scenario , designed and directed by NATO ’ s Joint Warfare Centre , was comprised of a MJO + operation to restore the sovereignty of Norway while concurrently assisting nations adjacent to the Baltic Sea Region ( BSR ) in order to re-establish security and stability in the wake of an increasing number of hybrid and cyber-attacks . Its complexity and scale provided a considerable problem-set for logisticians to overcome . The limited availability of Main Supply Routes ( MSRs ) and the enemy threat over sea and air Lines of Communication ( LoCs ) challenged all logistic activities . From this perspective , sustainability was a major topic during operational planning and it was crucial not only for LANDCOM CG but also for the higher echelon .
The exercise was conducted from the period starting from G + 200 in the conflict and was an Article 5 counter aggression . Logistic operations became very complex due to the scale of the JOA and the different types of operations conducted by JTF NE . LANDCOM G4 was required to fully understand the sustainment design of war fighting operations in multiple locations ; in the North of Norway NRDC ESP , in the Centre of Norway EURCORPS , and in the South of Norway NRDC ITA while also managing counter-hybrid operations in the BSR that involved MNC NE and MND SE in Denmark , which also included dealing with an array of military and civilian functions in Northern Europe .
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