Travel report: International Study Tour JCGSC, May 5 th May 9 th, by Maj. Stig Nilsen, RnoAF Reporting Officer

Transcription

1 Travel report: International Study Tour JCGSC, May 5 th May 9 th, 2010 by Maj. Stig Nilsen, RnoAF Reporting Officer

2 Day 1 Travel day Our study tour started in Tartu, going by bus to Riga airport. From Riga we flew to Frankfurt in Germany, from Frankfurt we drove by bus to Heidelberg which was the final destination for the first leg. We arrived late afternoon and all the students were pretty amazed about the beautiful city and the surroundings. We were all booked in at the Marriott 5 star Hotel - all preconditions were in place for a nice stay. Day 2 Force Command Heidelberg, Germany Tuesday morning we went to the Allied Force Command Heidelberg for scheduled briefings on highly relevant topics on how this Force Command is contributing to ISAF operations and their general role as a NATO entity. We were welcomed by the Chief of Staff General Richard Rossmanith (GER Army), and was quickly led into the main tasks and responsibilities for the Force Command (FC) and how the command is being restructured to meet the set requirements from the Secretary General to develop more flexible, functional and deployable NATO Command and Control entities for future challenges. The General also pointed out that the FC actually is a joint staff from March this year, although the current manning still is land heavy and their main responsibility is land specific issues the General expects Air Force and Navy officer to join the FC from this summer. Even though, the General clearly stated that jointness is more about thinking and attitude than joint manning it self. An excellent point to bear in mind for all of us. The briefings we received covered topics like the development and the concept of the Deployable Joint Staff Element, Joint Logistic Support Group and Pre-deployment training. The main challenges underscored by the briefers were; flexibility and modular structures, manning and recruitment, proper training, force generation and how to really implement the various lessons identified in order to make them lessons learned. The students also received an interesting briefing on expectations of officers assigned to NATO staff elements. For smaller nations like the Baltic States the topics and issues covered in the briefing were very relevant. The core issue addressed was how to prepare the officer for the job in the NATO staff and for deployments to international operations, but also how to prepare the officer's family for challenges that lies ahead when being assigned to the NATO command structure. One thing is going abroad with your family to a foreign country, but it gets even more challenging for them when one family member is deployed to for instance Afghanistan, and the others have to manage on their own in a foreign environment. Another point to make for the smaller nations is that they cannot afford to have support elements deployed to support their officers assigned to the NATO entities, thus even more burden on the officer's shoulders. During the questions and answers session, the students were concerned about national caveats, - 2 -

3 comprehensive approach and roles and tasks for the Joint Military Commission. The use of vignettes for officer training was also picked up as a possible teaching tool for BDCOL. Vignettes are smaller cases or events from missions which are played during pre-deployment training as a part of the strive to implement lessons identified from live operations. View from Koenigstuhl, with the city of Heidelberg in the background. After the official program, the students were given amble time to enjoy the cultural part as well. A trip to the view point Königstuhl and a guided tour at the Heidelberg Castle, as well as time to spend in the city of Heidelberg. Heidelberg Castle. Day 3 Headquarter Air Command Ramstein, Germany Wednesday morning the party left for the next NATO command entity on the program; Air Component Command Ramstein. In Ramstein we were welcomed by the Deputy Chief Of Staff/Operations Brig General Gianni Baron from the Italian Air Force. As an opening remark the General underscored what important phase the students were in in their officer career. As future top military leaders it is important that we are able to see how military (air) theory is applied in practical work at a NATO HQ. Furthermore, the General outlined the three main priorities for Air Command Ramstein: ISAF; although this is a land-centric mission air power plays a significant role in support of both Land Component Command and Special Operations Component Command. Key air power functions are information operations and intelligence collection, air mobility and -3-

4 close air support. The latter is important for both show-of-force/force presence and force protection of the soldiers on the ground. Air Policing; this is a 24/7 peace time continuous operation in order to guarantee the security of the NATO area. A central part of this is the training of the new member states, and the General pointed out the important role Air Policing plays for the three Baltic States as a defence action. NATO Response Force (NRF); lastly Brig General Baron touched the NATO NRF concept which is undergoing a transformation which was covered in a separate briefing. During the intense program at HQ AC Ramstein the visitors from BDCOL received professional and key briefings on several topics within the remit of the Air Component Command. The briefings covered topics such as: Air Power Mission; flexible and responsive Air Power for today's need and for tomorrow's challenges. Main focus is combined joint air and space power in order to deter aggression. Air Policing; central Europe has one of the most busiest airspace in the world. This airspace needs to be monitored closely and any air traffic not corresponding with the current regulations must be dealt with. Most commonly is loss of communication with controlling agency (Air Traffic Control), problems with the Identification Friend or Foe system or discrepancies in the flight plan. NATO Air Policing mission is now also covering Iceland in addition to the three Baltic States, who are not able to protect their own airspace. The main challenge for Air Policing in the future is how to implement slow movers (helicopters and light aircraft). In some areas slow movers are more suitable for visual identification than traditional fighter aircraft. Air Planning; it was stressed that the Guidelines for Operational Planning is still used at the HQ AC, although the new Comprehensive Operational Planning Directive (COPD) is under way. In the HQ AC Operational Planning Process and Joint Intelligence Preparation (JIPB) of the Battle-space are conducted as we know it from the college. However, the briefer underscored the importance of initiating the JIPB as soon as possible the JIPB must start at the first indication in order to provide the OPP planners the information they need from the 2's. This is a topic heavily discussed at BDCOL as well. Plan execution; when the plan is to be executed three key elements needs to be managed. These are the weight of effort, the apportionment (the balance between offensive and defensive sorties or assets) and the method of operation (centralized, decentralized or autonomous operations). War gaming; when they conduct war gaming the ACC Courses Of Actions, the Air Operational Planning Group likes to do it the way we are used to at the college, by engaging the whole Planning Group in the J5/J2 game in stead of using computer assisted tools. It is important to stay at the operational level when conducting war gaming although the ACC is the tactical level. But as one Belgian pilot said when asked; There is no use to war game without Land and Maritime consequences. It easily gets too tactical, we need to stay at the operational level. HIP Task Force; we were also briefed on the HIP task force project with the main goal to alleviate the critical shortfall of helicopter lift in NATO missions. The HIP TF is a multinational/multi-agencies project which by the HQ AC is assessed to be the only way for smaller nations to contribute in NATO missions. This is also done on the fighter side with the five nations European Expeditionary Air Wing (Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway and Portugal) and the Heavy Airlift Wing in Papa Airbase in Hungary providing much needed strategic airlift with C-17s (comprised of 12 NATO/PfP nations all in all). ISAF air operations; although being a land centric operation air power does play a significant role in the ISAF mission. Providing force protection and protection of lines of - 4 -

5 communication with close air support and air interdiction sorties, all in support of Land forces and Special Operations Forces. The last portion of the briefings were conducted at a NATO Restricted level, which regrettably forced some of the students to leave the auditorium. A bit hard to understand because the level of information in the briefings were not that detailed and classified information could easily have been avoided. Nevertheless the topics in this portion were: Time Sensitive Targeting (TST)/Dynamic targeting (DT); TST are planned and prioritized targets that finally ends up at the Joint Prioritized Target List and air sorties are tasked on the Air Tasking Order (ATO), DT on the other hand are targets of opportunity that are important to strike immediately and time available does not allow the full targeting process. This part also included some very interesting legal considerations from the HQ AC LEGAD. Main focus were on familiar principles for the BDCOL students; Military necessity and humanity, distinction and proportionality. The main objective of this briefing was to show how Laws of Armed Conflict, Rules Of Engagement and the Geneva conventions impose restrictions on the use of force, and how it affects the TST/DT process. This requires that LEGADs are an integral part of all steps in this process. They must weigh the concrete military advantages against the potential collateral damage. NRF; the NRF concept in NATO is currently undergoing a transformation. It will be changed already this summer and NRF will be divided into IRF (Immediate Response Force) and RFP (Response Force Pool) with a lower readiness state than IRF. The objective is the same; to provide a technological advanced responsive force ready for deployment at a very short notice. Operations will span from Non-combatant Evacuation Operations,via Crisis Response Operations to Major Combat Operations. The Readiness Force shall be able to stay in theatre for 90 days, although the duration is still under discussion. Finally the HQ AC Ramstein rounded up the session with an interesting presentation of their High North Analysis. The main thing here is how the development in the Northern hemisphere may influence military operations in the future, and what capabilities would be required. The battle for oil, gas and fisheries mixed with the changing climatic conditions in the Arctic region will eventually affect the power balance in this region too. Before we departed, Brig General Baron once again thanked us for visiting HQ AC Ramstein, and highlighted the significance of joint campaigns with the best capabilities from all component commands. To the students the General repeated his main message that we were in a very important stage in our military career and that international experience is of great value to us. When released from HQ AC, a tired but still motivated party left for Holland and JFC Brunssum

6 Day 4 Joint Force Command Brunssum, Holland At JFC Brunssum the party was met by Mr. Ed C.W Frieser, head of public affairs office, and was given an introduction to the history of the command from its origin in France and the move to south Limburg in Holland in the late sixties. The main facilities of JFC is located in the remnants of an old coal mine. JFC Brunssum has a long-term focus and their responsibility for ISAF since 2003 takes up the majority of the command resources. As for the other commands we visited, Brunssum is also undergoing the transformation of the NATO Command Structure was a concern. The Commands are moving away from the traditional J-structure to divisional or branch structures, which is a challenge to those used to work in a J- structure. Delineation of the command structure, or how the command structure should be laid out (who is doing what) is the main objective for this transformation process. Shortly after the introduction from the head of PA office, we were greeted by the Chief of Staff, Lt General Jouke Eikelboom (RNLAF). The General gave an inspiring speech to the students, and covered the main tasks and responsibilities of the JFC. The ambition for JFC Brunssum is to run one major combat operation (MJO) and two smaller combat operations (SJO). This is similar to JFC Naples, but for JFC Lisbon the ambitions are a bit lower (two SJOs only). The General's main concern was the predicted troops withdrawal. Holland has already decided to pull back its troops next year, and US President Obama has also clearly indicated that US troops will be significantly reduced in not long. General Eikelboom stated that before the majority of troops can be pulled back from ISAF, is is important that the Civilian footprint is increased and up and running. This in order to improve the government and governance of Afghanistan. In the COIN campaign, according to General Eikelboom the main challenge NATO is facing is how to counter the narcotics industry. The Chief of Staff opened for a lengthy questions and answer session and was challenged with several good questions from the students. One topic the General spent some time on was the Police Training Mission in Afghanistan, and whether this a military tasks. In the General's view this is not too far from traditional infantry tasks, and European countries with partly similar police forces (such as Gendarmerie in France, Mareschausse in Holland and the Italian Carabinieri) takes up the main responsibilities and forms an important resource pool in the basic training. The briefing program for the rest of the day was a surprise to us, since the detailed program was unknown to the college project officers. Nevertheless, we were provided with many good briefings which covered topics like; a quite detailed brief on the ISAF operation and how the campaign is directed (the operational design), the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan with the main focus on the training of the Afghan Army, Police force and the emerging Army Air Corps

7 The training mission also includes the managing of different educational institutions, which also needs mentoring. One main problem is that the Afghan national Army and the Afghan Police does not work well together and must be improved. We were also given a thorough briefing on the operational planning process, where the JFC is using the draft version of the new Comprehensive Operational Planning Directive (COPD). The main principles of the OPP in JFC is; Commander lead staff support System based understanding Flexibility and adaptability The COPD apparently replaced the GOP February this year, although we learned earlier in the week that both FC Heidelberg and HQ AC Ramstein are still using the GOP. The seven stages in the new COPD is not that different from the GOP: 1. Situational Awareness/Knowledge development 2. Strategic Appreciation/Operational Assessment 3. Operational Orientation (culminating in the Mission Analysis Brief) 4. Operational Concept Development (COA development and the Decision Brief) 5. Operational Plan Development 6. Operational Direction/Campaign Assessment/Plan Review 7. Transition The COPD is a bigger document than the GOP, and has got more explanations compared to the current procedure. Some of the students feared that we would be given the COPD on our next exam in LA 1 in a few weeks. The students were also given a short introduction to the campaign assessment process, how the JFC assess whether the missions are accomplished or not. This is done in a system-of-system analysis and applies for all other missions than ISAF, which assessed somewhat different and conducted by the RAND corporation. In the end of the day we received thorough briefings on NRF (which was pretty much a repetition of what we learned from HQ AC Ramstein) and the logistic concept. The latter explained the roles and responsibilities for logistics as a part of the Deployable Joint Staff Element (DJSE), during pre-deployment and when deployed. The main challenges for the LOG concept is related to Lines-of-Communication (either too long, denied or restricted use), HNS and climate/terrain issues. The logistic footprint in the theatre should be reduced, which also includes the size of the NSEs (national support elements). The LOG Control functions includes synchronization, prioritization and integration including the NSEs apart from national owned assets outside the technical agreements. As a round-up of the day the students were awarded with a very interesting question and answer session with the POLAD at JFC Brunssum. A session that easily could have been prolonged. One interesting remark made by the POLAD was that politicians not really in favor of the ISAF mission, is even less in favor after they have visited Afghanistan. This clearly tells us that we are not able to get the message through why we are there and the progress made for the Afghan people

8 Day 5 Cultural Event Fort Eben-Emael, Belgium After sturdy briefing programs at the NATO HQs, it was time for some more cultural impression. Friday we went to Fort Eben-Emael near the Albert canal between Maastricht and Liège. Build in the years 1931 to 1935 it was the Belgian's hope that this fortress would defend their eastern borders, but the fortress was not prepared for air attacks and the Germans launched a well prepared attack and they surrendered quite quickly. The fort has an impressive construction of 17 bunkers and was by the Germans considered to be used as a underground V-1 rocket factory, but it was never put in operation. Finally the party could turn eastwards and start their return journey to the Baltic Defence College in Tartu. The International Study tour has been a very nice trip, many good presentations on highly relevant topics for us as students. Several briefings were done by Baltic officers which gave a very good impression; well prepared, knowledgeable about their topics and good English skills. Although, some topics were covered more than once so a better co-ordination between the different commands could have been useful. Nevertheless, it has been very useful for the students to get updated on the transformation of the NATO Command Structure, current challenges for the NATO HQs and what future challenges that lies ahead within the remit of NATO responsibilities. It is also very nice to spend time together outside the College Campus, trips like these are important to create a good social environment amongst the students and staff. Finally, many thanks to the College Sergeant Major for excellent administration and for guiding us through the program on the trip with a steady hand on the rudder. Thanks to the two Project Officers for their effort to provide the students with an interesting and educational study tour, and to the College management for prioritizing this