MAGAZINE

SPRING 2020

By Lieutenant Colonel Travis DETTMER , U . S . Army , LANDCOM PAO

The Strasbourg , France based warfighting headquarters is the first to undergo a Combat Readiness Evaluation using the ‘ New Approach ’.

“ I would go to war with you . You can be rightfully proud of your achievements during Trident Jupiter .” These were the words of Lieutenant General J . T . Thomson , Commander , NATO Allied Land Command , to Eurocorps Commander , French Army Lieutenant General Laurent Kolodziej , just before signing the official documents certifying Eurocorps on November 14 , 2019 as the NATO Response Force ( NRF ) land component for 2020 .

The NRF is a highly ready and technologically advanced , multinational force made up of land , air , maritime and Special Operations Forces components that the Alliance can deploy quickly , wherever needed . It is based on a rotational system where Allied nations commit forces for a period of 12 months . LANDCOM is responsible for evaluating land component combat readiness for the NRF .

Lieutenant General Thomson , who served as exercise chief for LANDCOM ’ s Combat Readiness Evaluation team , reminded the Strasbourg , France based war fighting corps headquarters of the significance of their evaluation .

“ The last time this great formation conducted a combat readiness evaluation was in 2010 . The standards [ then ] were very different .

We lived in an alliance that was focused on crisis response and less on collective defence ,” Lieutenant General Thomson said , suggesting that the threat situation has changed significantly recent years .

The certification exercise was conducted as part of Trident Jupiter 2019 and served as Phases II and III – the field evaluation and after action review / out brief – for Eurocorps ’ CREVAL .

Phase I , the administrative in-barracks evaluation , was conducted at their headquarters in late September . These final phases were where Eurocorps ’ resilience and capability as a NRF Land Component Command Headquarters was tested against the backdrop of an intense NATO Article V scenario .

During the test Eurocorps found themselves facing multiple armies from a fictitious nation that had invaded several sovereign NATO allies , requiring Eurocorps to mobilize as NATO ’ s first line of defense .

“ Nothing is fair in war , the enemy is going to take advantage of you ,” Thomson said to his Eurocorps audience , stating that , unlike the cold war era , today ’ s potential adversaries are much more aware of their own shortcomings . “ We must be careful of becoming less self-aware of our shortcomings ,” he said .

JOINT FIRES

INTELLIGENCE

FORCE PROTECTION