Photo By Capt. Gabrielle Hildebrand | Maj. Gen. Jeff Broadwater, deputy commanding general, V Corps, discusses lessons...... read more read more
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TALLINN, Estonia - U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jeffery Broadwater, deputy commanding general, V Corps, spoke with Estonian journalist Evelyn Kaldoja about DEFENDER-Europe 22 during a recent visit to Tallinn, Estonia, May 13.
DEFENDER-Europe 22 is a large-scale U.S. Army Europe and Africa-directed, V Corps-led, multinational joint exercise designed to build readiness and interoperability between U.S. and NATO Allies and partners.
V Corps is commanding and controlling DEFENDER-Europe 22 forces with a bilateral mission command element with Poland in the city of Krakow. Exercise activities include multiple live-fire exercises, road marches and river crossings across Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, and Slovakia.
When asked about improving interoperability for current operations, Broadwater, the exercise director, explained how important it is to apply lessons learned from exercises and working them into real-world operations.
"You are always learning inside of any organization, to include the military, and you want to incorporate those lessons learned on any actions," said Broadwater. He continued explaining lessons learned from deploying equipment and Soldiers during Exercise Saber Strike, conducted in March, which was incorporated into DEFENDER-Europe 22.
Broadwater went on to explain to Kaldoja the importance of working through challenges that arise.
"A wet gap crossing is when you put bridges down and have a large formation, armored and tracked vehicle formations, crossing," said Broadwater. He explained that timing, spacing, and tempo play a significant role and must be synchronized with other enablers.
"If you don't synchronize, the timing can become a little disjoined, just like any exercise," said Broadwater.
"What's so great about partnering with Estonia is focusing on things you are not doing right,” said Broadwater. “Everything isn't perfect when you do things for real. When the weather gets bad, when you can't talk on the radio, all those friction points come in when you are dealing with different nationalities and working the interoperability piece.”
In order to become proficient, Broadwater explained, leaders have to acknowledge their mistakes and try again.
"Interoperability is one of those critical pieces that if you don't train repeatedly, you will have some problems there," said Broadwater.
The DEFENDER-Europe exercise and many large-scale training events are planned well in advance. There are planning conferences that allow planners to identify objectives and the capabilities each player brings.
"This was planned well in advance," said Broadwater. "This exercise is about us getting better with our Allies and partners, and for DEFENDER, we have approximately 3,500 U.S. Soldiers and around 6,000 multinational soldiers participating."
The planning conferences also allow leaders the opportunity to identify interoperability opportunities.
The DEFENDER-Europe exercise takes place in Eastern Europe. It will occur around the same time as Exercise Hedgehog, a large-scale Estonian Defense Force (EDF)-led international military exercise testing the EDF unit's combat readiness in a global environment, reacting to different threats, and repelling regional military threats. The exercise director is Maj. Gen. Veiko-Vello Palm, deputy chief of defense in Estonia.
"How did you pick the parts of [Exercise] Hedgehog you would like to incorporate [into DEFENDER]?" asked Kaldoja.
Broadwater explained that it was a training opportunity.
"DEFENDER is incorporated with Hedgehog by the joint fires exercises we are doing," said Broadwater. "While we are practicing some long-range communication from V Corps tactical operations center in Krakow with the Polish Land Forces Command, we are training objectively and working with Gen. Palm and the Estonians to integrate communications."
Kaldoja asked how the crisis in Ukraine had affected the planning for the exercise.
"We have our current operations that we are doing inside of V Corps to reinforce our Allies in countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary that we are focused on in our current operations," said Broadwater. "[DEFENDER-Europe 22] didn't go away because this was so important to us. It has allowed us to ensure we can train our staff and our junior leaders inside our organizations to focus on real-world operations. These exercises are essential if we have to be ready for another contingency."
Broadwater continued explaining how V Corps is always looking for ways to improve their interactions and systems to be ready when called upon.
"Estonia has been a marvelous partner,” said Broadwater “They have bent over backward, and the professionalism seen from the newest soldier up through their leadership is unparalleled. We want to continue to focus on being interoperable with each other and taking these lessons learned from the exercises and incorporating them, bringing them inside of our formations."
V Corps works alongside NATO Allies and regional security partners to provide combat-ready forces and execute joint and multinational training exercises to improve interoperability and ensure an appropriate collective deterrence and defense posture.
| Date Taken: | 05.13.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2022 07:57 |
| Story ID: | 421266 |
| Location: | EE |
| Web Views: | 172 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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