NATO logisticians
bring know-how to
massive Norway
exercise
Headquarters staff from the Allied
Rapid Reaction Corps have been
in Norway supporting one of the
largest NATO exercises to be held for
decades.
Based at the Joint Warfare Centre in
Stavanger, the ARRC team provided
their logistical expertise to test the
NATO troops being assessed during
the ‘CPX’ (command post exercise)
phase of Exercise ‘Trident Juncture’.
The staff from our HQ’s ‘Enabling
Command’ branch played the role of
a NATO joint logistics support group,
to help replicate the vast challenges
presented by the deployment of tens
of thousands of troops.
Colonel Mark Comer (pictured right)
explained: “We’re providing that key
logistic function to stimulate the
joint headquarters and the other
components that are being evaluated
as part of this enormous milestone
exercise.”
Fjord Focus
SPECIALISTS
The ARRC team spent one month
on exercise inside the Land Warfare
Centre’s impressive mountain cave
complex, located on the edge of
Gandsfjorden, just outside the city of
Stavanger in southwestern Norway.
The cell of 35 staff were bolstered
by logistic specialists from the
Canadian armed forces, the 1st
German/Netherlands Corps, and the
NATO Support and Procurement
Agency (NSPA).
Captain Annie Kerr, a transportation
staff officer from 4 Canadian Forces
Movement Control Unit (4 CFMCU)
based in Montreal, was attached
to the ARRC for the duration of the
exercise. She said: “It’s my first time
working with NATO.
SUMMER 2019 the imjin
“And while there’s much that is specific
to this operation and the defence
of Norway, a lot of the skills that we
are learning we can carry across to
different roles. You could perhaps
call them ‘eternal truths’ of working
in a really complex and high tempo
environment.”
“It’s been challenging at times, as we
normally have little exposure to the
Alliance. But It’s just a case of getting
used to some different arrangements.
And it’s been great to get the
experience of different countries.”
COMPLEX
ENVIRONMENT
The ‘CPX’ evaluation phase of
Exercise Trident Juncture at
Stavanger ran alongside the enormous
real-life exercise, which saw the actual
deployment to Norway of around
50,000 troops from 31 NATO and
partner countries.
Colonel Comer continued: “There are
two very different elements of ‘Trident
Juncture’, one element is the live
exercise – an enormous undertaking
in itself and NATO’s biggest exercise
in terms of personnel in decades.
8
“But this has been a great experience
for me and my team. The real
advantage of being here (at Stavanger)
is that we can train and simulate
different activities that we just can’t
achieve in a live exercise scenario.
The advantage of
being here is that
we can simulate
different activities
that we just can’t
achieve in a
live exercise
scenario.