MAGAZINE
SPRING 2020
EURASIAN STAR 19
LANDCOM HICON EMBEDS IN EURASIAN STAR 2019 TO EXERCISE NATO RAPID DEPLOYABLE CORPS TURKEY FOR NRF 2021
By Lieutenant Colonel Travis DETTMER , U . S . Army , LANDCOM PAO
ISTANBUL – Day six of Exercise Eurasian Star 2019 ( EAST19 ) began with a healthy dose of inconvenience for the staff officers assigned to NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Turkey ( NRDC-T ).
“ We will be conducting today ’ s Situation Awareness Brief ( SAB ) without the aid of our prepared briefings ,” U . S . Army Colonel Brandon Smith , Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations for NRDC-T said during one of the final briefings of the exercise . “ We are going full analog due to a cyber attack that just took down our servers .”
This alleged cyber attack was not a real world incident , but rather a deliberate scenario “ inject ” designed to wean the warfighting headquarters away from sole reliance on digital systems in the conduct of staff operations . To simulate a cyber contested environment , the exercise HICON team from NATO Allied Land Command ( LANDCOM ) — the group acting as the exercise Joint Task Force Command — figured this minor planned cyber hardship was the least they could do to give NRDC-T an authentic experience .
the joint task force headquarters role for the training audience to help facilitate these processes . They also provided land domain coaching and mentoring to NRDC-T during the conduct of the exercise . Providing this land expertise and advice was not limited to the LANDCOM members . With augmentees from NRDC Italy ( NRDC- IT ) and Joint Forces Command Naples ( JFC Naples ), LANDCOM
“ Cyber attacks are a very real possibility in today ’ s operational environment ,” said British Army Lieutenant Colonel Matt Cann , LANDCOM ’ s HICON operations officer . “ Taking away their ability to run a daily briefing using digital products is just a small taste of what could be affected in the event an adversary conducts a successful cyber intrusion .”
NRDC-T conducted the command post exercise November 29 - December 6 , 2019 near their Istanbul headquarters . This was a major step in their preparation for a December 2020 combat readiness evaluation ( CREVAL ) designed to certify NRDC-T for their role as the NATO Response Force ( NRF ) 2021 land component .
The exercise control organization , or EXCON — the hub of training operations for NATO exercises — designs exercises to meet the aims and objectives of the training audience , in this case NRDC-T . EXCON ensured EAST 19 ran according to pre-planned events designed to provide incidents and dilemmas to steer the decision making and planning processes of the training audience . The LANDCOM HICON team ’ s role in this scenario was to support the EXCON by emulating
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Lieutenant General Kemal Yeni , Commander NRDC-T walks with Lieutenant General J . T . Thomson , Commander LANDCOM , during EURASIAN STAR 19 .